


All We Know Is Falling

by animeXalchemist



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Anal Fingering, Blow Jobs, Courtship, Dry Humping, Eventual Smut, F/F, Hand Jobs, M/M, Mutual Masturbation, Omega Verse, Oral Sex, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Porn With Plot, Reunions, Rutting, Smut, Soulmates, it's more like plot with porn tbh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2019-10-23 17:26:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 68,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17687765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/animeXalchemist/pseuds/animeXalchemist
Summary: Omegaverse AU.When he was six years old and faced the prospect of losing Sora, the one who mattered most to him, Riku made a promise: “I’ll become the biggest, strongest alpha there is, and then I’ll come find you.”Riku broke that promise. But years later, fate decides that it's time to intervene.





	1. Of Promises And Reunions

**Author's Note:**

> This is mainly [ Timpini's](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Timpini/pseuds/Timpini) fault. But then I can never end up sticking to a brief, so what was _supposed_ to be a smutty omegaverse one shot has turned into... this.
> 
> Rating will go up with later chapters. Tags will also be updated as appropriate. However this chapter could also be read as a one-shot, I guess, if you're interested in reading but want to keep things T-rated.
> 
>  **NOTE** : I have used a mechanic from the Japanese omegaverse in this fic: 'Fated Pairs'. Fated Pairs are essentially Alpha/Omega soulmates, able to sense each other immediately and intensely based on their pheromones. In this fic, most people consider 'fated pairs' to be a myth or a trope that only appears in fairy tales.

“Sora! C’mon!” Riku giggled as he ran ahead, little legs working that extra bit harder to increase the distance between himself and his best friend.

“Rikuuuuuu!” was the whined response, Sora reaching out with his hand to try and grab onto the material of Riku’s yellow shirt. Fingertips grazed against the soft fabric before it was gone, Riku ducking just out of reach and causing Sora to whine even louder. “No fair!”

Riku laughed harder, but it was cut short when Sora, wearing a fierce pout, decided to hurl his body into the other. Sora was small, but when he threw all his weight into making himself a human cannonball Riku didn’t stand a chance. With a small yelp he ended up squashed underneath the smaller boy, who was grinning in victory. “Now who’s not playing fair?” Riku mumbled, but it was hard to pretend to be mad when Sora looked so damn proud of himself and before long he was smiling as well. “Sora, you lump, get off of me.”

Sora considered this request for all of two seconds before he shook his head. “Nope! This is what you get for being a meanie and going on ahead without me.” He wriggled on top of Riku, as if trying to get comfortable on his new makeshift chair, and stuck his tongue out at him.

“Oh really? Think you can keep me here?” Riku rolled a bit from side to side, feeling the sand underneath him give way, and then he pounced, putting all of his weight into shifting to the side so that he could dislodge Sora just enough that he could give himself an opening to reverse the positions. Sora, to his credit, recovered quickly mid-fall and managed to grab onto Riku’s forearm, triggering a mini wrestling match right there on the beach. It was a pretty common occurrence, but they had completely forgotten the point of coming down to the beach at night in the first place.

Sora currently had the palm of his hand pushing against Riku’s mouth and cheek, while Riku had one of Sora’s hair spikes in his hand and was tugging in the hopes that it could get his frantically giggling assailant away from him. Not that he was faring much better; it was pretty difficult trying to win a play fight when he was trying not to laugh too hard.

They rolled over a few times, and just when Sora was back on top and Riku was on his back, his eyes widened as he caught a glimpse of the sky beyond the brunette that was crowding his vision. He tried to say something but Sora’s hand was squashing his face again, so he did the only sane thing that one could do in this situation.

Sora squealed, pulling his hand back and looking at Riku with blue eyes the size of dinner plates. “You licked me!” he accused, staring at his hand.

“Well you weren’t listening, dummy,” Riku replied simply.

“Riku, you _licked_ me!” Sora repeated.

“ _Sora_.” Riku reached out and put his hands on either side of Sora’s face, forcing him to look up. Immediately the smaller boy stopped fussing and looked up in wonder, mouth spelling out a small ‘o’ shape as he watched delicate lines of silver streak through the inky black sky.

“Wow,” he breathed, sitting back on his knees and allowing Riku the space to crawl out.

“I tried to tell you.” Riku stood up and dusted the sand off of his clothes, before reaching out a hand to Sora. “C’mon Sora, let’s go.”

Sora nodded, taking Riku’s hand without question as the other boy helped him up, and they stayed holding hands as they headed to where the sand faded into the sea. Without a word they sat, side by side, shoulders touching and fingers still interlinked as they looked up at the night sky. Riku would have been fine if time had stopped there, if the two of them could have stayed here, on their island, on their beach, looking up at a blanket of stars that he liked to think shone just for them.

“I’m gonna miss this,” Sora said quietly, shattering the companionable silence and Riku watched as his sweet dream cracked and shattered, the remnants sparkling in the dying light of a shooting star and the sea spray that lingered in the air.

“You’ll be back in no time,” Riku said firmly, squeezing Sora’s hand reassuringly. His stomach dropped when he heard sniffling, and when he turned to look he could see Sora’s eyes beginning to water.

“B-But I don’t wanna leave at all,” he sniffed, his lower lip trembling with all the emotion the two of them had been trying to ignore these past weeks, as if thinking that if they continued on as they usually did, things didn’t have to change, and Sora didn’t have to go away.

“I don’t—” Riku’s own voice cracked, and he bit his lip harshly, quickly looking up at the sky as if maybe that would have some answers, some sort of solution that would stop Sora’s parents from leaving the island and taking the one thing that mattered most to him. “Sora…”

“Riku,” Sora replied desperately, unlacing their fingers so that he could tug on Riku’s sleeve until Riku had no choice but to look back. Tears were falling over bronzed skin, cheeks still carrying little flecks of sand from their earlier tussle. Sora looked at him imploringly, willing him to have the answer.

That’s right. Riku always knew the answer. He was a whole year older, was good at coming up with new games, was just that little bit taller, that little bit faster and stronger, the one who always knew what to do in tough situations. Riku floundered under the weight of that gaze that believed in him so much, trusted that he could somehow thwart the grown-ups and keep them together.

He couldn’t win. The adults controlled their lives, and Riku knew when he was beaten, but… but he couldn’t just give Sora up without a fight. There had to be _something_ he could do.

“Hey, Sora, remember the first time we watched the stars like this? And you cried because you thought they would fall and hit you?”

Sora mumbled something along the lines of ‘stop making fun of me’, but it was said into Riku’s shirt where Sora had buried his head, small hands balled into fists and hitting Riku lightly before balling the fabric up. Riku didn’t hesitate to put his arms around the smaller boy, feeling resolve seeping into his bones and building him up.

“I’m not teasing. You remember what I said, right? I said I’d protect you, that I always would. You and me… we’re gonna be together forever.”

“B-But h-how can we w-when—” Honestly Riku wasn’t sure how his own voice wasn’t as bad as Sora’s, cracking and hiccuping around words that they had put off saying, hadn’t wanted to consider that they even needed to be said.

“We’re gonna get married.”

The words had come unbidden, but now that he had said them, they made perfect sense.

“Yeah, that’s it. Sora, we’re gonna get married.”

Sora rubbed his face on Riku’s shirt, getting it wet with tears, but he pulled back enough to look up at Riku. “Yeah?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah. If we get married, then we can be together,” Riku said logically.

Sora considered this, wiping at his nose. “Who’s the mum?” he asked after a moment, lips still pouting but not trembling as they had earlier. “I don’t like cleaning...”

“Then we can both clean,” Riku reasoned, smiling when he finally felt Sora relaxing in his arms.

“So we’re both mums?”

Riku wasn’t sure why Sora seemed so fixated on this one point, but he chuckled softly and shook his head. “Yeah, why not?”

Sora scrunched his nose up, something he did when he was deep in thought, but he at least wasn’t crying any more and once more settled down at Riku’s side, looking up at the stars. “Can alphas even be mums?”

“If I wanna be an alpha and a mum, then I will be,” Riku shrugged. He hadn’t presented yet, neither had Sora, naturally. But it had always been expected and always been assumed. Riku came from a family of prestigious alphas and would take over as the family head one day, and Sora was way too much of a sweet innocent goofball to be anything other than an omega-to-be. “If I choose you as my mate, and we get married, then the adults can’t keep us apart any more. We’ll be bonded together forever.”

“But we can’t do that until we present,” Sora sighed. “Hurry up and become an alpha already!”

Riku laughed, shaking his head fondly. “I’ll become the biggest, strongest alpha there is, and then I’ll come find you.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Pinky swear?” Sora held out his little finger, looking at Riku seriously. The silver haired boy stared at it for a moment, eyebrows furrowed. “What’s wrong?”

“A ring,” he murmured. “I should, um… I should get you a ring, right? To show that we’re serious about getting married.”

Sora hummed thoughtfully before his face dropped. “But we don’t have one. And what if I lose it, Riku? I always lose stuff.”

“True.”

“Hey! Don’t agree so quickly, meanie!”

Sora looked about ready to start his ineffectual punching again, so Riku held up his hands in surrender, chuckling lightly until he caught the slight glint coming off of his own chest. “Wait a minute…” He brought his hand up, gently fingering the silver crown held in place by the chain around his neck. It was real silver, given to Riku the day he had been born, although he was only really big enough to start wearing it this past year. He never took it off, important as it was, but in that moment he knew what he had to do. He reached back to unclasp the chain and then held the necklace in his hand. Sora cocked his head curiously as Riku shuffled so that he was behind Sora.

“You won’t lose this,” Riku explained, bringing the chain to the front of Sora before doing it up at the back. “So this can be my engagement ring to you.”

Sora pushed his chin to his chest to try and get a good look at the silver crown now hanging around his neck, before he broke into a blinding smile. “Yeah! Okay, Riku, I’ll take real good care of it, promise! You’ll become a super cool alpha, and I’ll become an awesome omega, and then we’ll get married and be together.”

“Right!”

Sora jumped on him then, arms wrapping tight around Riku’s neck in a hug so full of warmth and affection that Riku momentarily forgot how to return hugs and sat there, suddenly feeling really warm and fuzzy.

“Then I’ll wait for you Riku. For you to come and get me.”

Riku’s heart was still doing something weird in his chest, but he eventually managed to return the hug, burying his warm face into Sora’s fluffy hair. “Yeah,” he mumbled, “I promise that we’ll be together again.”

A promise made under a bright silver sky, the stars as their witnesses, and a crown signifying a special union.

A promise that Riku broke.

x~x~x~x~x

Riku groaned, eyes blinking open and squinting against the harsh light of the afternoon sun. His head hurt, his throat felt as though he had deepthroated sandpaper, and his hair wildly splayed out in messy clumps. He still felt slightly warm, the sticky residue of sweat still clinging to his pale skin, and when he shifted he cringed at the wetness between his legs.

Bringing a hand up to shield his eyes, he looked over to his side and regarded the dildo resting on his sheets.

“It’s finally over,” he muttered, forcing himself up on shaky arms. He still needed rest, his body screaming at him to get back under the blankets and sink into the cushions he had painstakingly constructed all those days ago. Regardless of what his body may have been telling him, he was sick of the sight of this place, no matter how perfect he had made his nest. He wanted out. _Now_.

He rolled to the side, struggling to get his limbs to co-operate, and when he finally did manage to stand on his own two feet a sudden wave of light-headedness assaulted him.

“Tch,” he clicked his tongue, bracing himself against the wall and catching his breath for a moment. He cast a withering look over to his nest before shaking his head, pushing himself to stand up straight and head over to the door on the right. An en suite lay inside, wide and spacious, the marble inside keeping the place pleasantly cool. Riku briefly leant against the marble to try and cool his heated skin quicker, and the only reason he pressed on to use the shower was because he hated the way his hair felt all knotted against his scalp from where he had been writhing against his pillows for long, painful hours.

It was an honest relief when he felt cold water washing away the evidence of the past… how long had it been this time? A week? Longer? He made a mental note to check his calendar once he was done.

He emerged from the room about an hour later, hair thoroughly brushed and combed, skin scrubbed nice and clean. He had a wardrobe full of clothes in there, but they were all loose, flowing garments and despite Riku demanding they be switched out for the things he normally wore, the selection remained the same. He’d need to head to the laundry room if he didn’t fancy walking around dressed like a flan.

Immediately, his beta babysitter descended upon him. Who even hired maids in this day and age? Or whatever the hell she was supposed to be. “Master Riku! What are you doing?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Going to find where my normal clothes are? You know, the ones I arrived here in?”

“You need rest,” she insisted. “Now let’s get you back into—”

“I can rest in my dorm room,” he cut her off. It was obvious he had no intention of resting anywhere. “It’s bad enough to have to sequester myself off in this ridiculous apartment at all. I want to go back to university immediately. As I’m sure you can appreciate, I have a lot to catch up on.”

“I really don’t think that’s—”

“I _am_ going to be the head of this family,” Riku cut her off once again, voice ringing with authority. “Whether people think I am fit for it or not, I don’t care. I don’t need to be babied, I don’t need my family to hire out a penthouse for my heats, and I don’t need a babysitter. As everyone seems to conveniently forget, I’ve been consistently at the top of my university cohort _and_ excel in every area they expected me to back when we all thought this would turn out differently. So excuse my bluntness, Kanga, but I do not care what you _think_. I _know_ that I am ready to go back and resume my studies. Now, please tell me where I can find my normal clothes.”

Kanga bowed her head. “They’re neatly folded and pressed in the laundry room, sir.”

Riku nodded, heading off before pausing. “How long was I gone?”

“Ten days, sir.”

Riku sighed. “Right.”

x~x~x~x~x

Catching up on ten days’ worth of assignments and homework was never fun, but catching up on ten days’ worth of missed social media messages from Kairi was actually far, _far_ worse. She had been attempting to court an omega called Olette and, judging from the developing narrative of the hundreds of messages he was frantically scrolling through in an effort to get caught up, it wasn’t going too well.

He was just reading over a bit where Kairi was cursing him out for daring to have his heat now during this terribly trying time when a car pulled up in front of him, and when he looked up he was greeted with a sheepish smile from the alpha herself.

“Heyyy there Riri,” she greeted as he clambered into the passenger seat. “So, how was the heat?”

“An inconvenience to you, it would seem,” he replied, shooting her a smirk.

“Oh my gosh okay I am so sorry for… all of that,” she said, fiddling nervously with her hair pin until it just fell out.

Riku laughed, already feeling so much better now that he was out of that rented nightmare and with someone familiar. Kairi’s sweet scent wrapped comfortably around him, as if he was being embraced by rose petals infused with a touch of peppermint.

“I was wondering why you didn’t complain at all when I asked you to come and get me.”

“I said I’m sorry,” she pouted, adjusting the hair pin so that it held her fringe out of her eyes once more.

“Don’t sweat it. I assume the Olette thing isn’t going too well?”

“It’s like she doesn’t get it! Any time I try to make a move I get derailed somehow! Do you think she really _is_ with Hayner, after all?” She scowled, continuing to mutter angrily under her breath. “Why are omegas so complicated?”

“Gee, thanks,” Riku said sarcastically.

“Oh Riri, you know I don’t mean _you_. You’re so far beyond complicated that calling you complicated would be an insult.”

“And yet you insult me anyway.”

Kairi laughed softly, turning to look at him for a moment. She took a deep breath and let the air escape her lips in a quiet hum, her eyes darkening slightly. “It’s stuff like… getting into a car with an alpha two seconds after you’ve just come out of heat. It’s faint now, but I can still smell it on you…”

“There’s nothing complicated about that,” Riku replied evenly, keeping his gaze level with Kairi’s. “You’re my friend and I trust you.”

Kairi hummed thoughtfully. “True,” she murmured, “Maybe you’re just so simple that you seem complicated.”

Riku let out a small breath that was the beginnings of a laugh, shaking his head before pushing his long hair to the side and bearing his neck. Kairi’s eyes zeroed in on it. “Maybe,” he agreed, then, “You don’t mind, right? If you can smell it, then I’ll likely be dealing with creeps all day.”

Kairi’s expression softened and she shook her head. “Honestly…” She leant forward, holding her wrist out and pressing it softly against Riku’s exposed skin. “Letting an alpha scent you immediately afterwards… people are definitely going to think we’re an item now.”

“That’s the point,” Riku pointed out. “If they think I’m taken, I don’t have to deal with them.”

“Yeah, you don't but _I_ do. Do you know how many hot-headed alphas I’ve had to fight over you?”

“Of course, as if you’d let me forget. I’d rather they just fight me directly, though. It’s not like they’d ever win.”

Kairi laughed. “You just exist to shred us alphas’ pride, huh? Draw us in with a pretty face and scent then send us flying with your very _un_ -omega like fighting prowess.”

“Improvise. Adapt. Overcome,” he grinned. “I could be any of the natures and still win.”

Kairi pulled back once she was done with the scenting, a small self-satisfied smile on her face before she bit her lip. “You know, if things do work out with Olette, I won’t be able to do this for you any more.”

“I know, and don’t worry about it. It’s not like I _need_ a scent shield. Just makes life easier.” Besides, without the two of them taking things further, Kairi’s scent only lingered around him for a day or so. But if this could take the edge off whatever residual scent remained of his heat, then it would be good enough.

She nodded in understanding before turning her attention to the road, turning the keys in the ignition. “So,” she cleared her throat, “To the campus?”

“Yeah. I have a lot of work to catch up on.”

“Your professors handed me the physical materials, so I can give you those when we get there. I think the rest is just online.”

Riku nodded. “Man, being an omega is _great_. Losing your mind for ten days and then being thrown into a sea of work.”

“Yeah, actually, shouldn’t you be resting?” Kairi asked as she pulled away from the kerb.

“Ugh, don’t start. I know my limits, I’m fine.”

Kairi made a noise that sounded like she didn’t agree, but she knew better than to start coddling Riku, no matter what her alpha instincts may be telling her. She had learnt that the hard way.

“So, how did it go? Your heat? You never did say.”

“It was… what it was. I could do without, but I guess it’s better than messing around with suppressants and ending up as the latest medical horror story.” He gazed out the window, watching as the grandiose apartments of this upmarket suburb gradually melted into a more urban landscape. “I… had a weird dream after it, though.”

“Oh? Weird how?”

“It was a scene from my childhood. Something that happened back when I lived on the islands. I, uh, I’ve told you about Sora, right?”

“That boy who was your best friend who had to move away?”

“Yeah. Well, back then, when things were… different. I made him a promise. I don’t really know why I dreamt about that.”

“He was an omega, right?”

Riku sighed and nodded. “Yeah… I wonder what he’s doing now.” He thought back to his childhood friend, smiling so wide that you could see the couple of missing baby teeth. One had fallen out naturally, the other had been an accident during a bout of particularly intense rough-housing. Sora hadn’t minded at all. In fact, instead of crying, he practically beamed and excitedly told Riku that the tooth fairy would now have to visit him and give him some munny.

_“And this time, I swear I’m gonna catch her! Come over tonight, Riku. We can stay up all night and see the tooth fairy!”_

“And yet we fell asleep,” Riku murmured fondly, recalling how Sora’s face was torn between emoting despair at having failed in their super secret mission, and elated at now having munny to spend on ice cream.

“What was that?” Kairi asked, but Riku shook his head.

“Ah, nothing, just… thinking aloud. I guess… someone like him would have a mate already. I wonder if he has kids?” As clumsy as Sora was, he had boundless love for everyone. Riku was sure that, despite his reservations, Sora would be a great mum.

“Wow, total opposite of you, huh? It’s sort of hard to believe you had a broody best friend when you’re inclined to roundhouse kick any alpha who _breathes_ in your general direction,” she chuckled.

“I wouldn’t say he was broody, just… I can see him as the type to settle down and have a big family. Whereas I actually have to run mine, no matter what anyone says. I will prove that I can fulfil the role I was _supposed_ to do, alpha or not.”

“But don’t you want a mate? Someone to come home to after a long day?”

“I don’t have time for that,” Riku sighed, but the thought didn’t outright piss him off as it had done when he was younger. He was a lot more aggressive to alphas back then, the troubled teen who rebelled and got into fights constantly. Now, a little older, a little wiser, he was content to leave alphas alone provided they did the same to him. Which, little by little as his reputation grew, they were more inclined to do. “And it’s not as though there’s ever been anyone I’ve actually been attracted to.” He fiddled with a strand of his hair. “Maybe I’m just broken? It’s not like much about me is typical.”

“True,” Kairi giggled, “But that’s always been your strength, I think.”

x~x~x~x~x

“So I absolutely hate my life,” Riku said bluntly, glaring at the textbooks in his arms. Kairi laughed beside him, patting his shoulder sympathetically.

“You’ve always managed to catch up before.”

“And I absolutely hated my life on all of those occasions as well,” he sighed, wanting more than anything to wallow in his self-pity. If he laid it on thick maybe he could guilt an alpha into doing his work for him, triggering their need to ‘take care of him’. Honestly, Riku sometimes wished his pride wasn’t such an annoyance, because manipulating them would be laughably easy. As it was he was far too cosy with ‘independence’ and ‘self respect’ to ever try flirting with ‘selling out’.

Every step they took closer to the library was a step closer to seemingly endless torture, but Kairi managed to temporarily pull him out of his funk by swiftly changing the topic.

“Okay, so, yesterday I got a text from Olette. And it said, ‘Why can’t more alphas be like you?’ but at the end it had the slanty emoji!”

“The… what?”

“You know! The colon and the slash. The slanty mouth emoji… thing. What does that even _mean_?”

“How the hell should I know?” Riku mumbled.

“Because it’s the one that _you_ use all the time!”

“I don’t use it _all_ the time.”

“You’re pretty infamous in your use of it,” Kairi insisted. “So can I, like, get a translation please? Why do you omegas communicate in hieroglyphs? Can’t you just let me know if you’re into me or not?” she whined.

“Aw, but if we did that, however would we retain our sexy mysterious ways?” Riku asked.

And then stopped dead in his tracks.

Kairi didn’t notice, continuing to walk through the campus and pouting. “Is there a trick to it? Some sort of omega code? If I get you guys to use a certain emoji does that mean I— Riku?” Kairi looked around, only to find that Riku was rooted to the spot, eyes wide. “Riku?” she repeated, heading over, “Hey what’s—”

She gasped as Riku’s textbooks fell from his hands and landed heavily on the ground by his feet. “K-Kairi,” he gasped, looking at her with a glazed over look in his eyes, and Kairi’s eyes widened in shock as she noticed his cheeks taking on a pretty flush. His scent spiked suddenly, sweet sharp apples mingling with the spice of cinnamon and something distinctly _earthy_ , and Kairi reeled back in shock, hand covering her mouth.

“Oh my god,” she said through gritted teeth. “Riku, are you, is this, didn’t you just have your heat?!”

“Yes,” he gasped, breath coming out in light pants, “I-I don’t know what’s happening.”

For the first time in her many years of knowing him, Riku seemed genuinely panicked, and a quick glance around showed that other students were beginning to glance in their direction. Instinct kicked in and Kairi immediately closed the distance between herself and her friend, who clung to her for dear life. Shit, Riku was _trembling_. What was she supposed to do in a situation like this?!

“J-Just try to calm down,” she managed, shooting a glare at anyone who dared to try and get closer. “You’ve got to talk to me here, Riri. What’s going on?”

“That smell,” Riku breathed, inhaling deeply and letting out a small groan. “Where… where is it coming from?”

“Smell? What are you talking about?” Kairi sniffed the air, but she couldn’t smell anything particularly out of the ordinary, except for Riku’s fluctuating scent and other spikes of curiosity from passing students. As an alpha, her sense of smell was highly developed. So whatever it was that suddenly had Riku struggling to keep himself standing up straight _should_ have leapt out at her right away.

“The ocean. It’s the smell of- of the ocean and- and wide open skies. A tropical breeze blowing through palm trees, the scent of the sun,” Riku was rambling, cheeks now flushed a deep red, his aquamarine eyes shining with lust and unrestrained affection.

Kairi was suddenly terrified, but she couldn’t let her own scent spike in such a way as to spook Riku. She tried to keep it together, gripping his shoulders and shaking him. “Scent of the sun? What does that even _mean_ , Riku? You’re not thinking straight right now, you need to rest, okay? Let’s get you to your dorm—”

“No!” It was said with such vehemence that Kairi flinched back for a second, and in that second Riku pushed himself away and stumbled towards whatever the hell had induced this weird episode. At least, Kairi assumed that’s what he had been doing. And if it was like this now, then she didn’t want to know what would happen if he actually found it.

“Riku, you can’t!” she protested, running after him and grabbing his wrist.

“Let me go! I need it, I need to know what- need to know what this is!” He struggled against her, but Kairi was quick to wrap her arms tightly around Riku’s waist from behind, planting her feet firmly. He may be taller than her, and at full strength Riku would have sent her flying across the campus without so much as breaking a sweat, but right now… Riku wasn’t normal right now, wasn’t thinking clearly and certainly wasn’t co-ordinated enough to break her hold and run away.

She took a deep breath, gritting her teeth before saying, firmly, “Riku. _Stop_.”

Riku froze for a moment before he started thrashing around. “Don’t talk to me like that,” he growled, and _that_ sounded a lot more like the Riku that Kairi knew. “Don’t you dare- you can’t- I need to, stupid alpha, _fuck_!”

Kairi gaped at him. Riku rarely swore, so to hear him using such language now was definitely a red flag. Riku, however, had gone still again, murmuring something. When Kairi listened in she clung tighter, unsure of what else she could do.

“Mine, mine, it has to be _mine_ , that scent, that smell, I _need_ it Kairi, it’s so good, what is it? _Who_ is it? Are they mine? They must be. All mine. Mine, mine, my partner, my soulmate, my _alpha_ , I need—”

“Riku… I’m sorry,” Kairi said before forcefully spinning the omega around and throwing him over her shoulder, carrying him away from there as quickly and safely as she could. She may not have had a damn clue about what was going on but she knew that she had to keep Riku safe, and letting him continue on like this wasn’t smart.

Riku didn’t make it easy for her, his words coming faster and more frantic as he attempted a futile escape, squirming and hitting Kairi’s back.

Part way back to his dorm, Riku settled, going limp in her hold.

Back in his room, and Riku was groaning, squirming once more but it seemed more controlled. “What the… what he heck?” he asked, letting out a small ‘oof!’ as Kairi dumped him onto his bed. He blinked up at her, running a hand through his hair. “Kairi?” A pause, then, “What just happened?”

“That’s what _I_ want to know. You went crazy just now! Like this weird trance thing. I thought you were somehow going back into heat, but it wasn’t that.”

Riku looked around his room as if he was still trying to remember how he got there. But one thing was firmly imprinted in his mind.

“The scent of the sun…” he murmured, bringing his hand up to press against his heart, pulse quicker than it should be.

Kairi eyed him warily. “Yeah, you were talking about the sun and beaches and other weird stuff. About how it needed to be yours.” She furrowed her eyebrows, wondering if she should continue, but ultimately figuring that Riku clearly needed help working through… whatever the hell this was. “You said it was ‘your alpha’.”

Riku glanced up sharply, lip curling in the beginnings of a snarl. “ _What_?”

“I’m just the messenger here,” she sighed, leaning against the wall. “That’s what you said.”

Vaguely, now that she mentioned it, Riku _did_ recall that. “But I… I don’t have an alpha.”

“I know.”

“And that’s never happened to me before.”

“I know.”

“I don’t _want_ an alpha. I don’t need one, either.”

“I know.”

“Well do you also know what just happened then?!” Riku actually did snarl this time, tugging at his long hair in frustration.

Kairi’s face softened, and she shook her head apologetically. “That, I don’t know. But this is all going to be okay, Riri. Maybe this was just… some freak one-time thing. It has to be, right? Like you said, it’s never happened to you before.”

“Yeah,” Riku said slowly, “Yeah you’re… you’re right.”

Kairi nodded, pushing off of the wall and crossing over to lean over Riku on the bed. She held out her wrist, and gently pushed silver locks to the side so that she had access to Riku’s neck. “Just in case,” she said, and Riku swallowed, but nodded. When she was done, she pulled back, placing a hand on her hip. “I think you should get some rest,” she said, putting her hand up when Riku looked like he was about to protest. “You didn’t rest up properly after your heat, I know you didn’t, and you know it too. Maybe that’s what caused you to go loopy just now. Some sort of… side-effect of heat exhaustion? Either way, you should take a nap. I’ll go and get your textbooks, okay? You dropped them earlier.”

“I can go,” Riku said, moving to sit up but Kairi pushed him back gently.

“Riri, I’m asking you, as a concerned friend, _please_ rest up. What happened just now, it was, I was so…” She took a shuddering breath, her nerves plainly showing in the way her hands were shaking.

Riku’s eyes widened and he backed down, taking Kairi’s hand in his. “I’m sorry, Kai.”

Kairi shot him a weak smile at the nickname. “It’s okay. I just want you to be safe.”

Although clearly not happy, Riku acquiesced and led back down. “Okay. I’ll rest.”

“Good.”

Kairi quietly made her way out of the room, checking one last time to make sure that Riku really _was_ lying down, before she was gone.

Riku stared up at his ceiling, still feeling somewhat dazed from what had just transpired. Kairi’s scent draped heavy around him, but where there had once been a comforting embrace, something familiar and floral, it now just felt… wrong. The petals were stale, the freshwater stagnating. This scent didn’t belong here. It was all so _wrong_.

Riku closed his eyes while dreaming of the sun, burning away what didn’t belong before warm rays caressed his skin, branding him instead with the scent of shared sunsets and the unlimited possibilities that a new dawn brings.

x~x~x~x~x

Riku sighed, using his right hand to squeeze his left shoulder as he rolled it slightly. He felt stiff. He supposed that sitting in the library for hours would do that to a person, but he was so close to getting through what he had wanted to do today, and with a resigned sigh he forced his head back into his economics textbook and retrieved his pen.

His hair was drawn back into a ponytail to prevent it from obscuring his vision, and he would occasionally play with it as it hung over his left shoulder while making neat, precise notes on the current chapter.

It had been about two weeks since ‘the incident’. Kairi had practically stuck to him like glue that first week, watching him worriedly as if she thought he would burst into flames at any given moment. She had insisted on scenting him, but it had gotten to a point where Riku simply couldn’t stand it.

He wasn’t sure why, especially since _he_ had been the one to ask all those years ago that she do him that favour. But the thought of doing it now made his stomach twist in a way that made him feel ill.

Aside from that minor development, however, things seemed to have settled down. Riku was making decent headway with his workload, and he had finally convinced Kairi to just bite the bullet and ask Olette out to dinner. To both of their immense delight, she said yes.

Riku was just about to start tackling a particularly dense section that involved a load of formulas when suddenly his body tensed up and he dropped his pen.

There it was… but it was faint. It started off faint, but Riku had been subconsciously searching for the sun ever since that day, even though he knew he sounded totally bonkers.

Before long that scent was getting stronger, cool sea spray and fingers gently twining together, and Riku felt his heart beginning to thrum loudly in his chest. He could feel the creeping heat, could feel everything becoming fuzzier as his focus narrowed in on the one thing he craved above all else.

He balled his hands into fists, attempting to retain some degree of control. Kairi wasn’t here to stop him this time.

Kairi wasn’t here to stop him this time…

He breathed in deeply and moaned, stumbling to his feet. It was _exhilarating_. His body felt weak and yet strangely invincible. He was powerless to resist, and yet was somehow certain he’d gain a new kind of strength if he just gave in.

More, more, more.

It was getting stronger and Riku felt like he was burning up.

Mine, mine, _mine_.

The gentle wisps of clouds against his fingertips, the sweet tang of coconut milk on his tongue, the all consuming heat and scent of the sun. All of his senses were heightened, all of his nerves on fire, but before Riku could seek out the source like a moth to a flame, the source came to him instead.

Riku had sequestered himself into a corner of the library’s very top floor. It was a lot quieter up here and it was much easier to work in peace, but in that instant someone came barrelling around the corner, slamming hard into a bookshelf and causing quite a few books to topple noisily to the floor.

Riku was dimly aware of voices shouting in the background, but he paid them no mind as the newcomer righted himself, breathing ragged before he looked directly at Riku.

Time seemed to stop. Deep blue eyes bore into him, _devouring_ him, and if Riku thought he was hot before then the intense heat of that gaze was incinerating away any and all reason Riku had left.

It was _him_. His sunshine, his light, his soulmate.

His alpha.

The young man moved quickly, closing the distance between them at such rapid speed that Riku was certain that he’d crash into the table. At the last minute, however, the alpha simply jumped on top of it, taking the shortest route possible to reach him. He was on one knee, reaching out to touch Riku and he swore that those fingertips were singeing the man’s very essence into him.

“ _Mine_ ,” he said possessively, cupping Riku’s cheek and there was very little Riku could actually do other than simply melt into the touch, nodding dazedly.

“ _Mine_ ,” Riku said with equal intensity and a touch of desperation, grabbing hold of the hand against his cheek so that he could press his nose into the bronzed skin of the alpha’s wrist. He moaned, eyes fluttering at the sharp scent of a sweet fruit that would bind them together and the undercurrent of choppy waves that would sweep them clean away.

Just before his eyes could close, however, the sun streaming in through the windows caught on something silver, reflecting brightly. Riku’s glassy eyes took in the contours of small silver spires and the solid links of a silver chain, the physical proof of a promise long ago made, mostly forgotten, and thought broken and impossible to keep.

Could it really be…?

“Sora?” he whispered, tentative, almost reverent.

The young man flinched for a moment, shaking his head as if trying to rid himself of the same hot haze that was claiming Riku. They gazed at each other for a long moment, and gradually Riku was able to focus on a more complete picture, taking in unruly spikes of brunette hair and seeing beyond the lust in those mesmerising eyes that took him right back to the past.

“Oh my god,” the alpha breathed, “ _Riku_?”

Hearing his name said with that voice, a voice that had much matured and gotten deeper, but nevertheless _his_ voice, sent Riku’s mind into overdrive.

Sora. Sora was here. Sora was right in front of him, he was _touching_ him, and even after all these years that silver necklace hung proudly around his neck.

Riku felt a lump forming in his throat, hit with an overwhelming barrage of feelings and not having the faintest clue where to start. Someone let out a sob, probably him, but quite possibly Sora, and then Sora’s arms were wrapping tightly around him, the hug a little awkward and a little uncomfortable given that Riku was only half sitting in his seat and Sora was still kneeling on the desk.

“So it was you. Oh my god, Riku, it was _you_. I should have figured it out sooner, you smell so _good_ ,” he gushed, nosing at Riku’s neck and groaning in pleasure. “You smell like home.”

Home. Yes, Sora smelled like home, too. Sora was his sanctuary.

“Sora! Where the hell are y— SHIT, SORA! What are you doing?!”

Frantic voices in the background, and hurried footsteps heading in their direction. And then hands were trying to pry Sora away from him, and Riku’s heart felt like it would break.

Sora growled at the intrusion, his eyes narrowed menacingly at the intruders in an expression he wouldn’t have thought possible from Sora. Not cute, innocent Sora.

But times had changed, and things were oh so very different now.

“Get off of me!” Sora demanded.

“We are so sorry,” one of them, a blonde guy, was saying to Riku. “He’s usually not like this. Something just sort of came over him all of a sudden.”

“It happened about two weeks ago as well, ya?” The two newcomers were both alphas, and this one was taller than his friends, a shock of orange hair atop his head.

“But he normally doesn’t harass omegas like this! Honest! Please don’t think he’s a bad guy!”

“Wakka, Tidus, I said get _off_.” Sora shrugged his two companions off, although he did at least have the decency to get off of the desk. “You don’t understand. This guy, well, he’s Riku! He’s my…” Sora groped for words, looking over at Riku in awe, as if not quite believing that he was real. “He’s mine,” he said softly. “And I’m his?”

It wasn’t a statement, it was a genuine question that Sora was directing at him. Riku huffed a small breath of a laugh. Was Sora kidding? Did he really think that Riku could say no?

“And he’s mine,” Riku agreed, still feeling light-headed.

“I don’t really get it, man, but that still doesn’t change the fact that we gotta go. Practice is in less than ten minutes now thanks to your crazy dash through the library,” the taller one— Wakka?— said. “So, like, say goodbye.”

“Are you crazy? You want me to leave him after I only just found him again?” Sora sounded genuinely offended.

“But we don’t wanna get booted from the team,” Tidus pointed out.

“So you two go ahead without me!”

“But we—”

“It’s okay,” Riku found himself saying, almost like he was running on autopilot. It was surreal. This whole thing was so damn surreal that he clearly hadn’t processed it all properly. All he could currently ascertain was that Sora— _Sora_ , Sora was _here_!— had somewhere else to be. “Go to your thing.”

“But I—”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Riku promised, although he supposed that his promises must mean very little to Sora, given how things had turned out.

Sora stared at him for a long moment before sighing in frustration, thrusting his mobile phone into Riku’s face. Riku blinked at it in confusion.

“Your number,” Sora explained, “I’ll call you immediately after I’m done. We have a lot to catch up on.”

That was an understatement. Riku took the proffered phone and began typing in his details, during which time Sora moved behind the desk and wrapped his arms loosely around Riku, his breath tickling the back of Riku’s neck. He played with the silver strands before carefully pushing the tresses to one side, nuzzling his neck.

Riku’s eyes widened and his fingers trembled slightly over the virtual keys as Sora scented him, in the middle of the library. His two friends looked about ready to say something more, but a low growl from Sora stopped them from doing so.

“This way, you won’t forget about me,” Sora murmured, breath hot against the shell of Riku’s ear and causing him to shiver. “I’m not losing you again.”

Riku finished entering his details and handed the mobile back. He didn’t trust himself to say anything, and Sora didn’t push him to. He quickly flicked through the new contact information, nodded, and with a large degree of reluctance separated himself from his old friend.

“I’ll see you later,” he promised, looking so serious that there was absolutely no room for disagreement. Riku simply nodded, and Sora smiled.

It took Riku’s breath away.

“I’ll be back with you soon, Riku,” he said, before turning to trail after his friends, taking the warmth with him.

Riku sat there for a long moment, his notes scattered around the floor and on the corners of the desk from where Sora had disrupted his work earlier. Sora’s scent lingered thick and heavy on his skin, and Riku finally allowed himself a moment of honesty as he moaned and trembled at the thought of Sora doing it again.

What was going on? What was happening to him? Within the span of about five minutes, Riku had totally capitulated and surrendered. That wasn’t his style at all. Where was he even supposed to begin when it came to unpacking all of this?

With shaking hands he fished out his own phone from the depths of his jacket pocket, keying in a number and taking a deep breath.

“Yeah, hey, Kairi? I think I’m in trouble.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well if Nomura doesn't wanna develop the KaiRiku friendship I guess I'll bloody have to.
> 
> This fic really has turned into something it was never supposed to be, but I'd be honoured if you stick around for the ride! Thank you for reading, and I shall see you in the next chapter :)
> 
> May your lives be blessed with bountiful SoRiku goodness~


	2. Of Fairy Tales And Soulmates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riku plans to keep his distance from Sora during their meeting. But even the best-laid plans go astray.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh everyone I have been absolutely _blown away_ by the response to the first chapter. Over 100 kudos! And the nicest comments ever ~~that I read like 20 times each and then cried because I'm a sap~~. Thank you so much for the support, and I hope that I can meet your expectations!
> 
> Shout out to [Timpini](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Timpini/pseuds/Timpini) for being my beautiful beta reader, even though she'd rather I stop world-building and get to the sexy stuff already "n.n
> 
> Also yes, Sora's last name is cheesy. Will Riku's be just as cheesy? Yes, yes it will.

_Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there lived a beautiful omega prince. On the day of his presenting the kingdom rejoiced, for he was to be their saviour. You see, for many a moon they had been at war with the neighbouring kingdom, but it was hoped that a union via marriage would put an end to the hostilities. And so it was that the beautiful prince was to marry the neighbouring kingdom’s alpha princess, and together they would be the light to vanquish the dark decades of war._

_However an evil witch, who profited greatly from the war, was determined to see that the union would never be realised. She sold spells to both sides, spells that caused unimaginable hurt and pain, but also spells that could cure wounds and sustain life, thereby ensuring that the war would continue on in a vicious cycle. The night before the prince and princess were to meet for the first time, she stole into the castle and abducted the prince from his bedchambers before vanishing without a trace._

_When news of the abduction broke the kingdom was heartbroken, and the king demanded that every corner of the land be searched. However no matter where the knights looked, there was no sign of their beloved prince. The alpha princess, who was a woman of honour and duty, swore that she would not rest until she had safely returned the prince to the kingdom so that they may be united and bring peace to their realms. She set off on a perilous journey, searching the farthest reaches of the map and undertaking feats that those before her could not._

_One day, as she was refilling her canteen by the river, she came across the most wondrous scent. It tugged sweetly yet insistently at her, and she abandoned her canteen in order to seek out the source. As the scent got stronger the alpha forgot about her mission, about why she was out there, and about everything that had come before. Only one thing was clear, and it was that she needed to find the source of the scent, for it was her destiny._

_Breathing ragged and body tensed like a coil, she came across an empty clearing. However, although it may have been empty to her eyes, she knew instinctually that it must have been an illusion, for here the scent was strongest and she knew without question that her destiny was oh so close. Closing her eyes and honing in like an arrow, she followed her heart and came across something hard. She did not open her eyes, for she knew that she would see nothing, but she reached out and pulled on the lever-like object. All at once there was a loud noise as something shifted, and as she slowly opened her eyes a tall tower was revealed to her._

_Not waiting a second longer, she scaled the tower with ease, the scent imbuing her with an even greater strength than that which she naturally possessed. The second she reached the top floor and entered via the window, someone ran to her and wrapped their arms tightly around her torso. It was him, the beautiful prince that had gone missing. He was the source of her newfound strength, and he confessed that he had lost all hope of anyone ever finding him thanks to the witch’s clever trick. But her scent had cut through his doubts. He knew that everything would be okay._

_Just as they were about to make their escape, the sky darkened and a bolt of lighting struck the tower. In a flash of dark smoke the witch appeared, eyes glowing red with anger._

_“How did you find this place?” she demanded. “It should have been impossible!”_

_“The prince’s scent called to me, bade me to come to his side. It was my guiding light,” the princess declared. She drew her sword, unafraid even in the face of such immense power, for the alpha had found an even greater strength. With a mighty battle cry she leapt forward and struck the witch, dodging the spells being flung in her direction. The battle was long and arduous, but it was the alpha who triumphed, breaking the cruel illusion and freeing the prince from his prison._

_The two of them returned to the kingdom, whereupon a great celebration was held. They regaled the king of what had happened and he beamed brightly, for he now knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that their union had always been the will of fate. To find each other against such impossible odds, drawn together like the poles of a magnet, it was proof positive of the deepest of connections: a soul bond that could never be severed._

_Their wedding was a grand occasion and was attended by all from both kingdoms. The union of the alpha princess and omega prince ushered in a new era of peace and prosperity, their bond a beacon of hope and love and light for all._

_And they lived happily ever after._

_The End._

Sora’s mother gently closed the book, looking at her rapt audience with a soft smile on her face. “And that, my darlings, is the true power of love.”

Riku’s eyebrows furrowed. “But… that’s not a real thing, right? Scents don’t work that way.” He had been learning more about the different natures and scents at home lately from a stuffy private tutor. He didn’t really like the tutor because it meant he had less time to play with Sora now.

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Sora’s mother smiled, motioning for the two young boys to come closer as if about to share a secret. Both Sora and Riku scooted forward. “They say that sometimes, when the stars align _just_ right, an alpha and omega will come across each other and instantly know that they are destined to be together. That they are soulmates.”

Riku frowned. This seemed like a pretty important point but it had never been mentioned in his lessons before, so he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to believe. He looked over at Sora to see what he thought of the matter, but his best friend was currently pulling a face.

“Aw, mum, who cares about that? I wanna know if the princess fought a dragon! Did she? Did she?”

“Why yes she did. The meanest, scariest dragon in the land.”

“Wow!” Sora grinned, standing up and puffing up his chest. “I wanna be the alpha princess! I wanna fight a dragon!”

“Hey, you can’t!” Riku protested, standing up as well. “ _I’m_ the alpha princess.”

“Nu-uh!”

“But my dad said! He said I was gonna be an alpha and the leader of my family so that means _I_ get to be the princess! You can be the omega prince, and I’ll come rescue you.” Riku caught sight of Sora’s wooden sword, the counterpart to his own, lying against the toy box and quickly ran over to it and picked it up. “Don’t worry, prince Sora, I’ll save you!” he promised as he held the sword up.

Sora pouted and crossed his arms. “But I don’t wanna be rescued,” he whined, before an idea struck him. He grinned deviously and hopped up onto his bed. “I’m not the prince! I’ll be the witch, and I’ll beat you with my magic!” he declared, holding his hand out in front of him. “Fire!”

“Woah!” Riku quickly rolled to the side, dodging the imaginary fireball that Sora had just thrown at him. “You evil witch… give me back my friend!” Riku ran at the bed, but had to quickly hit the floor as Sora cast blizzard magic on him that he only just barely escaped.

“You’ll never beat me!” Sora cackled, gearing up for another spell, and Riku held his sword out to brace against the attack. Unfortunately for them Sora’s mother very pointedly cleared her throat, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

“Boys, I said I’d read you a story before bedtime. It’s already late.”

“But—” Sora began, but she shook her head.

“No ‘buts’, pumpkin. You both promised you’d go straight to sleep, remember?”

She bit back a laugh at the pitiful pouts being thrown in her direction, gently taking the sword away from Riku before peeling back the bed covers so that she could wrestle Sora under them.

“Tomorrow,” Riku mumbled as he crawled in next to his best friend. “We’ll have the final battle tomorrow on the beach.”

“Yeah,” Sora nodded, snuggling up closer to Riku when his mother switched the light off.

“Goodnight,” she called sweetly.

“G’night,” both boys responded.

They listened to her footsteps descend the stairs and lay in silence for a moment. Then, “Hey Sora? Do you think it’s true? About soulmates?”

Sora yawned. “I dunno… but I don’t really care.”

Riku frowned. “But if they exist, wouldn’t you wanna meet them?”

Sora pulled the blankets closer to him, making himself into some sort of blanket burrito before shaking his head. “Nah,” he said sleepily, “I don’t need a soulmate when I have you, Riku.”

And then he was asleep, leaving Riku alone to think about dragons and swordfights and soulmates and why he felt so happy at what Sora had just said.

x~x~x~x~x

When Kairi entered Riku’s dorm room— the designated war room for their hastily agreed upon meeting— she barely had a foot in the door before she recoiled back in shock, hand flying up to cover her nose.

Inside Riku had been frantically pacing up and down, but at the sound of his door opening he looked up and visibly relaxed when he saw his old friend standing there. “Kairi, thank god, I—”

“What happened?” Kairi asked, stepping in and closing the door behind her. Riku had sounded weird on the phone, only mentioning that he was in ‘trouble’ and that ‘this wasn’t how this was meant to go’, but it was hard to piece together a coherent narrative from that. And now that she was here in person, to have him smelling like _that_ … her eyes narrowed. “Who did this?”

Both of them were shocked at the steely edge to her tone, but Riku recovered quickly enough. “So, you’re not gonna believe this, because _I_ still don’t, but… I, uh, I’ve told you about Sora, right?”

“That boy who was your best friend who had to move away?”

…why did this conversation suddenly feel like déjà vu?

“Right. Well. It was him.”

Kairi gaped at him. “What? But I thought he was an omega?”

“So did I!” Riku groaned, running his fingers through his hair. From the looks of it, he had been doing that a lot, because it seemed a lot more frazzled than usual. Everything about Riku seemed a lot more dishevelled than usual, now that she was taking notice. “He was _supposed_ to be one! I mean, his own _mother_ would always say that she could sense it, that Sora would be an omega, and that I should always look out for him. W-Which I would have done anyway, because, well, it’s _Sora_. Sora means— _meant_ —everything to me, but I…”

Riku let out a pained sound, clenching his fist and punching the wall. _Hard_. Kairi flinched as flecks of plaster flew into the air and Riku growled, “ _Isn’t this all the wrong way around_?!”

Slowly, carefully, Kairi approached Riku in the way one might approach a startled animal. “Riri,” she said softly, “Let’s just… calm down for a minute.” She placed a hand on his shoulder and he flinched, but he didn’t lash out any more, which was progress. “Let’s sit down, and you can tell me what happened from the beginning.”

She bit her lip when Riku straightened up and she got a better look at his hand, the knuckles already beginning to bruise from where he had attacked the wall. The wall wasn’t doing so well either judging from the dent Riku had left in it. It was a wonder that the omega hadn’t split his skin.

Kairi led him to the bed where they both sat down. Riku took a deep breath, and began. He told her about how that sunny scent he had smelled a fortnight ago had been burnt into his mind ever since, and that he had come across it again in the library today. He then started detailing the events that followed. Once he was finished, Kairi punched his arm.

“Ow, _what_?” Riku asked, rubbing at his now sore arm with his hand, which his brain was only just now processing as _also_ being sore. It was throbbing painfully now that adrenaline was seeping out of his body, and dimly Riku realised that punching his wall had not been the wisest course of action.

“That’s for letting him scent you,” Kairi replied. “What were you _thinking_?”

 _‘That I didn’t want him to stop,’_ some traitorous part of his mind supplied, and Riku flushed with embarrassment.

“Clearly I _wasn’t_ ,” he said instead, “I don’t know how it ended up this way, it just… happened so fast.”

Things had gone from zero to one hundred and Riku felt like he had barely even blinked. He was just going about his normal life, diligently working through his assignments and hanging out with Kairi one day, and then the next… The next day, Sora went to his university. Not only that, but Sora was an _alpha_.

_“I’ll become the biggest, strongest alpha there is, and then I’ll come find you.”_

The words of that old promise echoed in his mind, mocking him, and Riku groaned in embarrassment at how sure of himself he had been. Things were so simple back then, and Riku enjoyed the carefree confidence that only a child can truly possess. That confidence had crumbled the day he presented as an omega, the ground giving way below him as everything Riku had ever thought he had known turned out to be a lie.

And it was all his fault. He couldn’t do that one simple thing right. All he had to do was present as an alpha and he had failed, breaking not only the promise he had made to Sora on that starry night, but also disappointing all of those around him. He had been desperately trying to make up the ground that he had lost ever since, clawing his way back up and clinging stubbornly to a future that had been charted for him the day he had been born.

They couldn’t take that away from him as well.

And yet, seeing Sora again made Riku feel like the foundations he had been building were in fact made of the sand they used to run along back when they were kids. They were shifting beneath his feet, and if he were to fall again would he be able to make it back?

Riku shook his head. No, whether he could or couldn’t didn’t matter. He _had_ to. No matter how many times it took, no matter how many times he kept getting knocked back, no matter if Sora would be there to catch him, Riku knew the path that he walked. He wasn’t about to deviate from that now.

And even if he did, how could he think that Sora _would_ catch him? To place such blind faith in someone was impossible and Riku had no intentions of taking a leap into uncertainty, regardless of what had happened earlier.

“—romantic, don’t you think?”

Riku shook his head, distracted out of his thoughts when he realised that Kairi seemed to have been talking this whole time.

“What?”

Kairi looked at him, and shook her head. “You weren’t listening, were you?”

“I’ve got a lot on my mind,” he mumbled defensively.

“Right… I was just saying that it’s really kind of incredible. After so many years, the two of you ended up at the same place and were drawn to each other. Don’t you think that’s romantic? Like something out of a fairy tale.”

Riku snorted bitterly. “If that’s the case then it’s a pretty twisted fairy tale.”

Suddenly Kairi was crowding his vision, looking at him intently and forcing Riku to scoot backwards on the sheets in some sort of vain effort to escape her piercing gaze.

“Okay, but… what if it is one?”

Riku blinked, not following. “Huh?” he asked intelligently.

“Doesn’t this seem kind of familiar to you? Now that I think about it, this isn’t ‘like’ something out of a fairy tale, it _is_!”

Riku raised an eyebrow. “Well it’s good to know that both of us are going insane,” he said dryly. “You’re not making any sense.”

“No, I’m serious!” She pulled out her phone, quickly opening the Internet up and typing as she spoke. “When I was a kid, my grandma would always read me a story before bed. And in a lot of them there would always be an alpha and omega finding each other no matter what, based on their scents, even if they had never met before! And they’d live happily ever after.” She sighed happily, recalling the happy memories. “You remember those, right?”

Riku shifted uncomfortably. “Not really,” he admitted, “My parents didn’t really do stuff like that. They wouldn’t read to me, and the books I was allowed to read for myself had to, uh…” He thought back to the exact wording. “‘Promote a strong mind and instil the values of our family’,” he said in a mock-snooty voice.

Kairi stopped her Googling and stared at him. “You’ve never read a fairy tale?”

Riku scowled at her. It was hardly _his_ fault that his parents deemed fairy tales to be fantastical nonsense not worthy of his time. Still, in the back of his mind, there _was_ a story floating around, the words whispered so quietly that he could hardly make them out. “Wait… I think I did hear one, once. About an… omega prince? And an alpha princess… and she fought a dragon, right?”

Kairi hummed thoughtfully. “I don’t remember a story where a princess fights a dragon, but the rest seems familiar.” She had resumed her search and a moment later let out a small cry of victory. “Here it is! Fated pairs!” She shifted closer, showing Riku the screen. “Also known as a ‘soul bond’ or ‘soulmates’… you get the idea. So according to this, it’s when an alpha and omega are so in tune with each other that they will always be drawn together, no matter the odds. Their scents will guide them to each other. Sound familiar?”

Riku had been listening patiently but finally he was unable to hold back a bark of laughter. “C’mon, Kai, you can’t seriously believe in this crap. If ‘soul pairs’ or whatever the hell they are exist, don’t you think we’d hear about them a lot more?”

“I don’t know,” she said doubtfully. “There are billions of people out there, you know? So I guess… only a handful of those will be lucky enough to actually find ‘the one’. Especially when there are so many good alternatives…”

The way Kairi’s voice trailed off made Riku suspect that they were currently having the same thought: if soulmates _did_ exist, then most people were ending up with ‘second best’. Was Kairi now questioning whether pursuing Olette was truly what she should be doing?

“I don’t like this,” Riku said, “If people believed in this then no one would ever get together. You’d always be waiting on someone that probably doesn’t exist, always second-guessing your relationship. And besides, what the hell does ‘fate’ know? You know you better than anyone. So isn’t it better that _we_ get to choose, rather than leaving it up to something abstract like destiny?”

“But then how else do you explain what happened to you whenever Sora was close by?” Kairi asked quietly.

“F-Firstly, we don’t _know_ that he was the cause,” Riku said pointlessly, because what else could have triggered it? Even if he had wanted to deny it, that orange-headed alpha with Sora earlier had mentioned that Sora had been similarly affected at the same times Riku had been. “And secondly… what? Sora bravely scaled the library whereupon he found his ‘true love’ and they both lived happily ever after? Get real. What happened earlier was just a… just a fluke.”

“It doesn’t smell like a fluke.” Kairi put her phone down and looked at him seriously. “I mean _Christ_ , Riri, you _reek_ of him. This Sora guy has staked a very blatant claim on you. What did he do, _mount_ you right there against the desk?”

The image flashed across his mind unbidden: one of Sora’s hands pressing him against the hard oak of the desk while the other gripped his hip, slamming forward so hard that the notes he had been making scattered into the air, falling into a crumpled heap around them as the sturdy oak groaned under the weight of their passion.

Riku’s face exploded into flames.

“ _Kairi_!” His voice came out as a strangled shriek, a far cry from his usual default of speaking with a constant undercurrent of sarcasm lurking beneath the surface of his words. A wry part of Kairi’s mind vaguely wondered about what other new noises this Sora guy was capable of pulling out of the omega. She quickly shook her head, refusing to entertain such a dangerous line of thought.

“How strong is he?” she asked after Riku had stuffed his face into his pillow and had a good therapeutic scream.

Riku glanced up from his pillow. “What? Why?”

Kairi looked at her wrist and bit her lip. “Well I was thinking that I’d try and… _overwrite_ some of his scent, somehow, but given how strong it is, I’m not sure how successful that would be. Plus part of me thinks that if I tried, he’d kill me.”

“Sora would never—” Riku began without even thinking about it, before he bit his tongue. He couldn’t say for certain that Sora _wouldn’t_ hurt Kairi, even though the very idea of it seemed ludicrous. The fact was that he had no idea about what Sora was capable of. Hell, he had no idea about _Sora_. Not any more. It had been over a decade, and the Sora that Riku knew was from a different lifetime. He knew all of this, knew logically that Sora was, in fact, a stranger to him now. But just thinking that made his heart clench painfully in his chest.

 _‘That’s not true,’_ some baser part of him was screaming, a part that had long been muted until that fateful day a couple of weeks ago. Now it was calling out for the alpha that had awakened it from a long slumber, and being enveloped in Sora’s scent ensured that there was always a cycle of, _‘Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora, Sora,’_ playing in the back of his mind, being chanted like the holiest of prayers.

_“This way, you won’t forget about me.”_

As if there was any way Riku _could_ forget him. Even if he had done his best to bury the past and move on, the memories of his time on the islands could never truly be erased. They would always be there, locked in the darkest recesses of his mind, but ready to break free the instant Riku showed a moment of weakness and was unable to keep them at bay. They would flood back whenever Riku saw a shooting star in the night sky, or when the cafeteria decided to stock sea salt ice cream last summer. In such cases it was pretty simple to shove the memories back down, but now…

“Do it,” Riku said firmly, holding his hair back and bearing his neck. “Erase it as much as you can. And if Sora tries anything, I’ll protect you.”

Kairi smiled sadly. “That should be my line,” she murmured, “Some alpha I am.”

“Hey, you’ve done more than enough for me over the years,” Riku said, voice resolute. “And here you are again. You’re a great alpha, Kai. And you know it’s true if _I’m_ saying it.”

She laughed at that, shaking her head fondly and holding out her wrist. “That may be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” Instead of pressing her wrist against Riku’s neck as she had been intending to, she pulled the other into a hug, nuzzling against his neck to scent him that way. Riku tensed up in her arms, although she wasn’t surprised given his usual aversion to physical contact. He didn’t relax, really, but he did bring his uninjured hand up to pat her shoulder in a move that was equal parts awkward and reassuring.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, the line so easily applicable to so many things. Kairi understood nevertheless.

“We’ll get you through this.”

“Yeah. Thank you, Kairi.”

x~x~x~x~x

True to his word, Sora had called Riku immediately after he was done with his prior engagement. He had asked to meet him in front of the library, and they could take it from there. Riku’s body had been tensed ever since, an elastic band drawn to full tension with the potential to snap at any minute.

He had arrived slightly earlier than they had agreed. Kairi was by his side and looking over at him nervously. Riku looked like he was trying to play it cool with his hands in his pockets and trying to look bored, but she didn’t miss the way his eyes were subtly scanning the crowd and that his posture was a little too stiff to be natural.

“It’s going to be fine,” Kairi said in an attempt to be reassuring, but her voice sounded doubtful even to her own ears. And when she tried reaching out, Riku flinched away.

Maintaining a neutral expression given the current circumstances was nearly impossible, Riku concluded, and believed that he should be commended on his efforts so far. There were so many questions running through his head, but his foremost concern was what he’d do if he lost his mind again once Sora got here.

His next concern was his scent. His stomach felt like it was twisting in knots as both Sora and Kairi’s scents swirled around him in a way that was honestly sickening. Kairi hadn’t been able to erase it, but he supposed that had been wishful thinking. Instead he now felt out of sorts, something instinctual deep within him screaming that this was _wrong_ , and that Sora needed to fix it. It was crazy, but Riku actually felt _guilty_ for letting Kairi scent him, even though she had been doing it for far longer than Sora had, and Sora hadn’t even _asked_. Ordinarily Riku should have kicked his arse right then and there, not desperately want to seek him out and apologise and beg him to scent him all over again.

Riku sensed Sora before he saw him, that comforting warmth approaching like the dawn of a new day. With him was the blonde guy from earlier, and Riku wondered what it meant that both of them appeared to have brought chaperones. Maybe Sora didn’t trust himself, either.

The alpha was clearly restless, practically vibrating with excess energy, but he lit up when he caught sight of Riku. Sora’s grin was so bright that it made Riku feel weak in the knees. “Riku!” he greeted, seeming relieved. “Man, that practice just dragged on and _on_!” he complained, coming to a stop a few metres before him. Riku was unable to keep his gaze on anything other than Sora, so he didn’t miss the way the alpha’s eyes narrowed and quickly locked onto Kairi.

Kairi swallowed but squared up to him, about to say something before Riku took a step forward and placed himself between them. He was a man of his word, after all.

The blonde that came with Sora sighed and placed a firm hand on his shoulder. “He literally kept asking us every five minutes if you actually existed,” he said to Riku. “As if it was all a fever dream…” He hit Sora upside the head, causing the brunette to stop sizing Kairi up and pout a little instead.

“What the heck, Tidus?”

“ _Behave_. Man, I knew you shouldn’t have come here alone. Aren’t I a great friend?” Sora muttered something under his breath that caused Tidus to break out into loud, boisterous laughter. Once he had calmed down he looked over to Kairi, cocking his head to the side curiously. “So you’re here to mind this one, huh? Probably for the best. The way these two were acting earlier… I’ve never seen anything like it. Sora’s never been big into reading, so when he ran off I should’ve guessed it wasn’t a book that he was interested in checking out.”

Sora groaned at the attempted humour. Riku had the good grace to look embarrassed.

“I told you that I didn’t need you to come babysit me,” Sora said, crossing his arms. “I would never do anything to hurt Riku. And he knows that, too.”

“Oh really?” Tidus asked, raising an eyebrow. “So then why did he bring her?” He motioned over to Kairi, and once again Sora’s eyes were boring into her.

“I- that’s…” he faltered, before sighing in frustration. “Who are you?” he asked, although it sounded more like a demand.

“My name is Kairi. I’m Riku’s best friend,” she declared confidently.

Sora briefly looked as if she’d just given him a left hook, but he recovered quickly enough. “O-Oh, _really_?” he asked, voice tight through a smile that wasn’t reaching his eyes. “Okay then, Kairi, why are you here?”

“Because I asked her to be here,” Riku spoke up and Sora’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“What? But _why_?”

Riku bit his lip. “Because I… I don’t trust myself,” he admitted. “I wasn’t myself earlier, I said things that I wouldn’t normally have said, and…”

 _‘And that’s terrifying’_ , he thought. But what was more terrifying was that he still felt like he meant them: that Sora really was his, and that he belonged to Sora, even though the notion was preposterous.

“And I don’t even know you,” Riku pressed on, ignoring the part of him that was screaming at him to take it back immediately. Of _course_ he knew Sora, knew him intimately to his core, knew him in a way that words couldn’t possibly explain. “I last saw you when I was _six_ , Sora. And I’ve changed a lot… and so have you.” He swallowed the bile in his throat, forcing out his next words no matter how bitter they tasted on his tongue. “You’re practically a stranger.”

“A… stranger, huh?”

What happened next occurred so quickly, that Riku blinked and he had missed it. Sora shook Tidus off of him and in the next instant was dashing past Kairi with such alarming speed that she simply couldn’t have reacted. It reminded Riku of earlier that day, when Sora had rushed to close the distance between them in the library. Before he knew it the alpha was in his personal space, taking Riku’s hands in his and looking up at him with determination blazing in his blue eyes. Somewhere in the back of Riku’s mind he realised that Sora still being shorter than him was incredibly endearing, and had he not known better he’d have thought he was falling for Sora even harder than he had been earlier.

“My name is Sora Hikari. I am eighteen years old and I have lived in a place called Twilight Town for most of my life. I am a first year student here at Radiant Garden University, and I got in on a sports scholarship. I am an only child, but I have a cousin back in Twilight Town who is basically my little brother. I am one hundred and seventy four centimetres tall and my birthday is on the 28th of March, so that makes me an Aries. I presented as an alpha when I was thirteen.”

Riku felt overwhelmed as information was offered to him desperately, but not once did Sora hesitate in giving it to him.

“I will eat literally anything, I don’t really have a favourite food. Oh, but I love putting pineapple on my pizza and my friends always give me shit for it. My favourite colour is red. Good points about me are my optimism and my loyalty to my friends. Bad points are that I can be super stubborn and sometimes naïve. And I can’t for the life of me crack an egg.” He let out a sheepish, breathless laugh at that, his eyes never once leaving Riku’s as he volunteered any and all information that came to him in that moment. _‘I’m not a stranger’_ , his hands were saying as they clutched Riku’s tighter like a lifeline.

“My hobbies include playing sports, hanging out with my friends, and dog walking. My favourite films are Disney films, and when I was fifteen I watched _Treasure Planet_ every day for a month because I really wanted to ride a pirate ship around space. Two weeks ago I came across a scent that took my breath away, and today I found out that scent belonged to you, Riku. And when I found that out, I was so damn _happy_. I never thought I’d see you again, so to meet you like this now feels like a dream and I still can’t quite believe that this is real. There may be some stuff that I don’t understand yet, and details that we need to iron out, but I _know_ that I never want to lose you again. Not now that I’ve found you after all this time. So please, Riku…”

Sora gently took Riku’s injured hand and pressed his lips against it. The kiss was feather light, but it sent heat shooting through Riku’s veins. Any residual pain melted away and Riku suddenly felt oh so _safe_. It was only his stubbornness preventing him from yielding to Sora, pulling him closer so that they needn’t be apart any more.

“Please, let me court you.”

Riku felt like he could hear Kairi calling out to him from somewhere, and like that Tidus guy may also have been saying something, but Sora’s words drowned most of it out and his own heartbeat pounding in his ears covered the rest.

He had come here with the express intention of keeping things cordial, but ultimately informing his former best friend that they were both far too different now to resume any sort of relationship. And yet, despite it all, his heart was singing at the prospect of being courted by Sora.

Riku could feel himself slipping again, his prized logic abandoning him as he stood on the precipice of fate. Flinging himself into the unknown was very much _not_ a decision he would consciously make, but something deep down was urging him to do it anyway.

“I… I don't know,” he said uncertainly, feeling utterly wretched as Sora’s entire demeanour seemed to just _drop_. That his words could have such a radical impact made Riku’s head spin with the implications of it. He couldn’t be responsible for Sora looking like that. Regardless of how irrational it may have been, somewhere there was still a part of him that felt duty-bound to make Sora smile, to protect him no matter what.

Riku swallowed.

“I mean, pineapple on pizza? That’s a pretty drastic thing to accept. So if we _did_ court… we’d need to take it slow.”

Sora perked up instantly, his eyes wide with hope. “So then, you mean…?”

How was he possibly meant to say no to that? He bit his lip harshly, at war over doing what he knew in his head to be the sensible thing, or following his heart into the unknown.

Riku didn’t know if he was happy with the war’s winner, but he _did_ know, really, that it was inevitable.

“We take it _slow_ ,” he repeated, in the hope that he would have enough time to gain better control of the situation before it was too late. But the look of pure adoration that Sora directed at him made it so very easy for Riku to think that maybe this _was_ love after all. He was certainly falling, even if it wasn’t.

Sora pulled him close, taking Riku into his arms, and the tension finally snapped as the omega melted against the alpha. The alpha who had just asked to court him… and Riku had accepted.

“Sora,” Riku whispered, as if somehow that one word would help him organise his chaotic thoughts.

Riku wasn’t sure if Sora really understood, but he pulled him closer nevertheless. “Thank you,” he breathed, and Riku could feel that Sora was lightly shaking against him. “I’ll be the alpha you deserve, I swear it. We don’t have to wait any more, Riku.”

Riku was so close to Sora that he could feel the cool press of the alpha’s necklace against his own skin. And despite being in deeper than he ever could have imagined, he found that a hesitant smile was tugging at his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Think of this chapter as my Valentine's Day gift to you, dear readers, because I love you all!
> 
> May your lives be blessed with bountiful SoRiku goodness~


	3. Of Courtship And Swordfights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riku and Sora spend some quality time together, and tensions run high.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I continue to be blessed and humbled by so many wonderful readers. All of your kind words and encouragements mean the world to me, so thank you so much.
> 
> Shout out to [ Timpini](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Timpini/pseuds/Timpini) as always for being my beta, and for being on the same wavelength as me when we both independently came across [this scrummy Sora picture](https://twitter.com/SakimiChanArt/status/1097305525606338560) and immediately messaged each other like, "OMG ALPHA SORA!!!!!"
> 
>  **NOTE:** The rating of this fic has now changed from T to E. This chapter contains NSFW content. You have been warned.

“Riku,” Kairi sighed as she gently pushed back the teen’s hair. “You need to stop doing this.”

Riku scowled at her, but the movement caused him to flinch in pain. “I can’t,” he said stubbornly.

“If you don’t you’ll probably get yourself killed,” she sighed again, carefully rubbing antiseptic cream onto one of Riku’s newer cuts that spanned the length of his right cheek. “Do you really want to die at fifteen?”

“I’d like to see them try,” Riku said through gritted teeth. God that stung like hell.

“That’s not funny.”

“I’m not joking.”

“You can’t just keep getting into fights and taking damage like this!” she cried, dabbing harder than she meant to and causing Riku to hiss in pain.

“I didn’t even start this one! _She_ did. That stupid fucking _alpha_ ,” he spat the word like it was the filthiest word he knew, and Kairi winced. Riku didn’t notice.

“All she did was ask to take you on a date. Couldn’t you have just said no?”

“Since when do alphas ever listen to the word ‘no’?” the omega scowled. “They’re pushy as shit. So I just make sure that they can’t protest.”

“But, that’s just…”

“It’s a fair enough deal, right?” Riku asked. “Agree to a date if they can beat me in a fight. After all, what kind of person wants an alpha so weak they’d lose to an omega?”

“So what will you do when one of them wins?” Kairi asked seriously. “Agree to be courted by the alpha who just beat the crap out of you?”

“I won’t let that happen. I’ll just have to stay stronger than any of them,” Riku said, his eyes fiery.

“But, Riku…”

“Ugh just _shut up_ , Kairi!” he growled. “If I lose to an alpha then they can damn well do whatever the fuck they want with me. If I start losing to alpha scum then it’s what I deserve.” He reached into the first aid kit that Kairi had retrieved earlier and grabbed a plaster, sticking it over the still-stinging cut. He then stood up, wobbling slightly and needing to brace himself on the table. He had been left limping, and honestly he wasn’t quite sure how he was going to make it home in this state, but he was too angry to care.

“If they wanna show off about how big and strong they are, how _great_ they’d be at protecting me, then they should damn well show me.” He let out a pained sound as he stood upright, doing his best to make it to the exit of Kairi’s kitchen without bursting into tears over how much this all _hurt_. Everything was throbbing and stinging and bruised and he _hated_ this, but he hated the idea of losing and being owned more.

“But no one can keep winning forever,” Kairi said sadly, looking like she desperately wanted to assist Riku, but knowing he’d lash out if she tried.

“Then I’ll be the first person who does,” Riku said resolutely. He eventually made it to the door and leant heavily against it, hand gripping the doorknob like a lifeline. “As if… I’d lose…” he panted, all of his energy seemingly expended on just this small trip to the opposite side of the room. “B-But if I did? Hell, I guess I’d have to marry the fucker.”

x~x~x~x~x

Being courted by Sora was a bit like being courted by a hurricane. Granted it was an enthusiastic and well-meaning hurricane, but a hurricane nevertheless.

Every morning Sora would be waiting patiently outside of his door so that he could walk him to class.

Every morning Sora had a hot drink ready and waiting for him, as if he knew that Riku would be grateful to have something to warm his hands on as opposed to shoving them into the depths of his leather jacket that, while fashionable, hardly helped protect him from the chilly autumn air.

Every morning Sora would greet him with such a blindingly beautiful smile that Riku was beginning to think that his day hadn’t properly begun until he had seen it.

It was far too easy to get swept away by Hurricane Sora, and honestly Riku didn’t appreciate that Kairi seemed to find this whole thing _amusing_.

“Once he starts actually bringing you gifts, you’re going to have absolutely zero space left in your dorm room,” she giggled when Sora sent him a picture of a grumpy-looking polar bear plushie on Kingstagram with the message, _‘Saw him and thought of you, haha! x’_

“How did it turn out like this?” Riku sighed, narrowing his eyes at Kairi. “Some use _you_ were. Just standing there while I agreed to let him court me,” he said with all the snark he could muster.

“I was quite literally _screaming_ at you, Riri,” Kairi retorted. “It’s not my fault you couldn’t hear me because you were too busy making goo goo eyes at your _dashing_ alpha. There is no doubt in my mind that you would have murdered me if I got in the middle of your love-fest.”

Riku couldn’t come up with a clever reply, mainly because they both knew that Kairi was, as embarrassing as it was, _right_. So instead he threw his empty Starbucks cup at her.

“You sure you don’t want me to chaperone your date this weekend?” Kairi had asked after she had stopped being dramatic over the three drops of fruit tea that had gotten onto her outfit after said cup-throwing.

“Yeah, it… It will be fine,” Riku replied after a moment. As much as he didn’t like the idea of a chaperone, he was finally beginning to understand _why_ the concept existed. Still, all of his interactions with Sora thus far into their weeklong courtship had taken place in the presence of others, and when they walked to class in the mornings it was only about five minutes before they had to go their separate ways. It would be nice to actually spend some time alone with Sora and just… get to know him again. “Besides, it’s not really a _date_. We’re just going to hang out together, like we used to.”

_Things will never be like they used to. Everything has irreversibly changed. Stop kidding yourself. How long are you going to pretend like this is all fine?_

Riku shook his head. “And besides,” he continued, “You have your date with Olette, right?” His smiled as Kairi’s gaze softened, a sweet blush on her cheeks as she nodded.

“That’s in the evening, though. So I could still come with the two of you if—”

“It’s honestly fine,” Riku reassured her. “You just focus on your big day, all right? I shouldn’t be back too late, so I’ll swing by and wish you luck before you go.”

Kairi seemed pacified with this, and that was why she currently wasn’t here as Riku glared at his wardrobe with positively murderous intent on this fine Sunday morning.

Riku was typically a clean individual, so the mountain of clothes thrown haphazardly across his bed was not a sight one would expect from one such as himself. But nothing seemed _right_. God why were his clothes so _depressing_? Did he own anything brightly coloured at all? He used to wear yellow all the time, what happened? Or… maybe bright colours would be too much.

He scowled at his reflection in the mirror, wondering why the hell he had even purchased this top when it had about twenty useless zippers on it. He pulled it off and tossed it onto the floor with a frustrated sigh, surveying the chaos.

Everything was utterly inadequate. How was he meant to spend a whole day with Sora when he didn’t have anything decent to wear? He plucked a pair of trousers up from the floor and scowled at them. God, what would Sora _think_ if he saw him in—

Riku gasped and dropped the trousers as if they had just burnt him. What the hell was he doing? He was just going to hang out with Sora, that’s all, so what did it matter what he wore? It was just Sora. He likely wouldn’t notice either way.

_But what if he does?_

“I am _not_ doing this,” he muttered through gritted teeth, scooping up a plain white t-shirt and a pair of black jeans from his bed and tugging them onto his body almost violently. He gazed critically at his reflection and scowled, but refused to try on anything else. He was tempted to see if he could do something with his hair, maybe style it somehow, but chastised himself once again for making far too big a deal out of this. “It’s just Sora,” he reminded himself. “So what does it matter?”

 _It’s_ because _it’s Sora that it matters._

“Screw this.” Riku pulled on a pair of black boots before grabbing his black leather jacket and striding purposefully out of his room, practically slamming the door behind him. He only got about ten paces down the corridor before he nearly crashed into Sora coming the opposite way.

“Woah, close one!” Sora laughed, catching himself just in time. He looked at Riku and immediately sobered up. “Hey, you okay? I was just coming to get you.”

“I’m fine,” Riku said unconvincingly. Sora had opted to wear a red hoodie with black Capri pants and a pair of pristine white trainers. He almost looked like he was heading to the gym for a workout, and the look was so effortlessly casual that Riku felt even more foolish for spending the better part of an hour fretting over his own outfit. But it was hard to stay mad when that gentle warmth that always accompanied Sora was permeating the air, causing the tension to naturally bleed out of Riku’s body. “I’m fine,” he said, tone softer this time as he smiled at Sora. “Good morning, Sora.”

Sora looked over him carefully for a moment, as if checking to make sure that Riku really was okay, before he smiled back. Riku felt his heart leap a little at the sight of it. “Mornin’, Riku! You ready to head out?” He held out his hand in invitation, and Riku stared at it for a moment before tentatively reaching out and taking it. Sora smiled even wider, his cheeks taking on a light dusting of pink, and Riku had to quickly look away before he did something rash like pull him in for a kiss.

Although not as intense as that first meeting, there was still an underlying tension bubbling just underneath the surface of all of their interactions. Riku felt like he was standing guard in front of a very precariously built dam that would burst if he didn’t expend all his energies on keeping it in check. Although he had been the one to insist that they take it slow and give themselves time to relearn each other, it was so hard _not_ to want to touch Sora, to sink into his warmth and kiss the lips that smiled at him so beautifully. He wondered if Sora felt the same way, if this magnetic pull tugged insistently on him in the same way it did on Riku, but thus far Sora had behaved like the perfect gentleman.

The first couple of days Sora had poked him at odd intervals just to make extra sure that Riku really wasn’t just a figment of his imagination, but once he had finally gotten his head around the fact that the two of them really were together again, he had calmed down a little and seemed utterly content with the way things were.

Riku was putting on his best approximation of contentment, when really he was restless. Restless for answers, for some clarity on their situation, for Sora…

He was pulled out of his musings when Sora gently tugged on his hand, leading the two of them to the dormitory’s exit.

“Yanno, what with moving all my stuff from home and getting the hang of student life, I haven’t really had the chance to check Radiant Garden out. So I’m looking forward to today,” Sora said happily. “I’m counting on you to show me the best spots.”

“Right, of course,” Riku nodded. “At least you can take it easy this year, fresher,” he teased. The two of them stepped out into the crisp autumn air and a slight chill ran through Riku’s body, but he ignored it.

“Ah man, I wish I could,” Sora sighed, “But because I’m here on a sports scholarship I need to actually _try_.” Sora pulled a face at the notion and Riku stifled a laugh. “I have to attend all my practices, which is fair enough, but I also need to keep my grades at a certain level and that sucks.”

“So you still slack off, huh?” Riku asked, amused.

“Hey, not all of us are born geniuses like you,” Sora huffed good-naturedly. “When I got the acceptance letter to Radiant Garden University of all places, my mum cried and my dad was convinced they’d made an administration error…” He laughed at that, shaking his head fondly before smiling at Riku. “But I’m not surprised you made it in here. You always were super smart, Riku.”

“I don’t know about that,” Riku said modestly, deflecting the compliment even though he felt ridiculously pleased at receiving one, especially from Sora. “So, uh, tell me about what sports you do. Those two alphas you hang around with are your teammates, right?”

Riku was leading them to the central square; a popular hangout spot for students and the place from which most of what Radiant Garden had to offer could be accessed. The trees above them were in the process of shedding their golden-brown leaves, and as they walked the leaves that had fallen crunched underfoot.

“Tidus and Wakka? Yeah, I met them a while back. They were on an opposing team in the water polo league my team at the time was competing in. We just sort of clicked.”

“Water polo?” Riku raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t been expecting that to be Sora’s sport of choice. “That’s not a typical sport you hear about. Why that?”

Sora sheepishly scratched the back of his neck with his free hand. “Well, actually… the main reason I got into sports in the first place was ‘cause my teachers said I had, ah… ‘behavioural issues’.”

Riku snorted in disbelief. “Behavioural issues? _You_?"

Sora pouted. “Yeah. They said I was a ‘disruptive influence’ and that maybe I would benefit from channelling my energy into sports or something…”

Riku wanted to ask if something had happened that led to Sora apparently needing some sort of outlet for otherwise destructive behaviour, as that didn’t sound at all like the Sora he used to know. It certainly seemed like Sora was leaving out a key part of that story, but… he didn’t feel like he had the right to know. If Sora didn’t want to tell him, then Riku wouldn’t push it. They had time. Sora would tell him when he was ready.

“A-Anyway, I really missed the sea from back when I lived on the islands, so I looked into water sports. My local pool had a water polo team so I thought I’d check it out, and I turned out to be really good at it. I play other sports as well, like here at Radiant Garden I’m on the water polo, swimming, and volleyball teams, but Wakka and Tidus just care about water polo.” He suddenly stopped and turned to Riku seriously. “ _Never_ ask them which team is the best, by the way. Wakka swears blind it’s the Besaid Aurochs but Tidus is convinced it’s the Zanarkand Abes, and honestly if I have to hear them have that argument again I’ll lose my mind.” Sora actually looked haggard and shuddered at the thought of it, and Riku made a mental note to not inadvertently trigger a war over water polo allegiances.

“What about you?” Sora asked as they picked up their stroll again. “There’s no way you _don’t_ work out. You play any sports?”

For a brief moment Riku felt like Sora’s words were loaded with barely concealed heat. Had Sora really been taking notice this whole time? Did he like what he saw? Riku shook his head quickly. It was just a basic observation and he needn’t read so much into it.

“On top of going to the gym, I’ve been doing jujitsu for a few years now,” Riku shrugged.

Sora whistled. “Right, so I shouldn’t pick a fight with you,” he laughed. “Why jujitsu though? Of all the martial arts, that’s not one I’d have thought you’d go for.”

“That’s…” Riku hesitated, pulling his hand out of Sora’s to instead shove it in his pocket somewhat defensively. “It wasn’t really a choice… I used to do Taekwondo but…” He sighed, forcing a smirk onto his lips. “But I had to adapt or else get eaten alive. So I adapted.”

The slightest hint of strain seemed to materialise at that moment, almost imperceptible, but certainly lurking there. It was a tentative acknowledgement of things not being quite right, but it was met with wilful ignorance on both their parts. Luckily they soon came upon central square and were distracted away from this new development.

The place was alive with people bustling about, students and residents and tourists alike. The latter were excitedly taking photographs in front of all of the beautiful flowers that Radiant Garden was famed for. Given that it was autumn, the beds were bursting with colour from crocuses and begonias, while the sweet scent of pine from the evergreens permeated the air.

“Wow, this place looks like it should be on a postcard,” Sora remarked.

“It is. You can get them at the post office.”

“No kidding? I’ll have to send one to my folks.” Sora walked towards one of the flowerbeds, peering around in wonder. Riku could understand the reaction; there wasn’t a place quite like Radiant Garden. He’d need to show Sora the fountain court; he was positive that he’d love it.

Sora let out a happy exclamation when he glanced at one of the pine trees, and Riku looked up to see what was apparently so interesting. There, nestled in between the needle-like leaves, were little paper jack-o-lanterns. Sora turned to Riku with excitement clearly shining in his blue eyes. “They even decorate for Halloween! This place is awesome.”

Riku was still trying to process the fact that Halloween was apparently so close. That had certainly sneaked up on him.

Sora frowned slightly and waved his hand in front of Riku’s face. “Uh, hello? You okay, Riku?”

Riku blinked and looked back over to the little pumpkin lanterns. “I just didn’t realise Halloween was so close…”

The alpha snorted in disbelief. “How could you _not_ know? It’s one of the best holidays!”

“I guess losing ten days threw off my calendar a bit…” Riku mused aloud.

“Huh?” Sora cocked his head to the side. “How do you lose ten days?”

Riku glanced away, his fists clenching and unclenching in his pockets. “I…” He clicked his tongue. “Heat,” he muttered.

_Things will never be like they used to._

Sora’s eyes widened and he coughed into his hand, suddenly taking renewed interest in the begonias. The blush creeping up his cheeks threatened to match their red hue if it kept up. “O-Oh,” he said lamely, uncharacteristically lost for words.

_Everything has irreversibly changed._

The strain from earlier got stronger, stretching the air between them until it felt pregnant with all of the things that they had failed to talk about thus far, the crucial things that were far too awkward and potentially too messy to acknowledge. This was the closest they had come to properly addressing the fact that this wasn’t how it was meant to be, that the expectations had been completely and utterly subverted. Sure, Sora had asked to court him, but given how Sora was it was likely largely down to impulse. Given the way he was reacting right now, it was clear that he hadn’t truly considered what the natural end of a successful courtship entailed. It wasn’t like Riku had dared to let himself think of that either, trying desperately as he was to try and remain grounded and work his way through all of this as logically as he could.

_Stop kidding yourself._

Despite the hustle and bustle occurring in the centre that day, the silence between them seemed to echo above all of it, thick and ominous. It made Riku’s stomach twist in knots, and he was tempted to just call it a day here and retreat back to his room. As the unbearable seconds ticked by Riku felt this temptation beginning to solidify into a resolve, but before he could verbalise it, Sora’s voice cut through it all.

“The captain of the volleyball team is throwing a Halloween party. You’ll come too, right? You can bring as many people as you want.”

Avoiding it altogether, huh? That was probably for the best.

_How long are you going to pretend like this is all fine?_

“Maybe,” Riku said noncommittally. He didn’t really do parties.

“It’ll be fun,” Sora argued, but he seemed a lot more subdued than earlier. A lot more cautious. Without meaning to they had stumbled onto a minefield and neither of them were quite sure how to get out of it without everything blowing up in their faces.

“I should probably spend my time studying.”

“At least consider it? Please?”

“Sure.”

They lapsed back into silence, Riku staring pensively at a cluster of white dahlias that had pink edging around their petals, while Sora pretended to study the grand mosaic that stretched across the stone flooring.

“Is there like… a costume shop or something around here?” Sora asked eventually, reaching out once more in a valiant effort to shift the tension. “It could be fun. A way to get inspired and come up with something cool for Halloween,” he suggested.

Riku nodded. “Yeah, I’ll show you.” His voice sounded resigned even to his own ears, and he cringed a little at it. Still, he wasn’t quite able to bring himself to look Sora in the eyes. Instead he began heading off in the direction of the shopping district and assumed that Sora would follow. He did.

Sora was about half a step behind him, a move Riku surmised to be deliberately calculated, and his eyebrows were furrowed in thought. On several occasions the alpha opened his mouth as if about to try and strike up a conversation, but each time he closed it again and sighed instead.

And so they walked in silence, and before long Riku had led them to the appointed destination. One advantage of Radiant Garden being student city was that something such as a costume shop could not only afford to do business, but actively thrived on it. Students were forever dressing up for one event or another, usually as a precursor to getting drunk. Because Riku really needed to see an inebriated Mario or a passed-out caveman on his way back from a late-evening study session in the library.

Sora perked up somewhat when he actually got inside of the shop, instantly running down one of the aisles to start rifling through the costume racks. Riku hung back near the entrance, eyes roving over the collection of masquerade masks up on the wall.

 _‘This wasn’t how today was supposed to go,’_ he thought, frowning. Sora was just there. They were in the same shop. If he wanted, Riku only needed to take a few strides and then they would be next to each other. But then why did it feel like there was this insurmountable distance between them?

Sora disappeared into the back of the shop, leaving Riku alone with his thoughts. Maybe… maybe this courtship was a mistake. He bit his lip harshly at the thought, feeling a sudden swell of emotion—anger, defiance, sadness—deep within him. How could he think of giving up Sora now that they were together again?

_Everything has irreversibly changed._

Clearly his heart and mind weren’t on the same page, and it was tearing him up.

“Hey, Riku,” Sora said, jolting Riku out of his swirling thoughts. He looked up quickly and Sora stood before him, his arms behind his back and a little secretive smile playing on his lips. “I found something.” His tone was one of hushed excitement, as if this was something that only the two of them were allowed to know. Before Riku could question it, Sora brought one of his arms forward and revealed a wooden sword not unlike the ones they used to spar with as kids. He thrust it forward, stopping just before it could hit Riku’s face, and grinned.

Riku blinked at the wooden weapon before him, his expression clearly one of confusion. Sora huffed out a small laugh and brought his other hand out from behind his back, it bearing an identical sword to the one being pointed at him, and twirled it lazily.

“Let’s have a swordfight.”

For a brief moment, fragments of a once beloved past played clearly in front of him.

_‘Hey Riku, let’s race!’_

_‘Get your sword, Riku! I’ve been practicing; I’ll really beat you this time!’_

He stared in disbelief. What was Sora doing, issuing such a challenge? Play fight or not, it was hardly the _proper_ thing to do. An alpha making such a suggestion to an omega was practically unthinkable, much less an omega that they were _courting_. It simply wasn’t done. An alpha should use a courtship period to showcase their ability to keep their partner safe, not challenge them to a duel.

_Things will never be like they used to._

But then… says who? Rather than an alpha asking an omega for a sparring match, this was Sora asking Riku for one. And that made all the difference.

Riku tentatively reached out and touched the smooth wood of the sword, but made no move to take it. Sora’s smile faltered slightly.

“You don’t want to?”

Riku made no reply, simply dragging his fingers across the blade in consideration. Sora took his lack of a negative response to mean something good, and he regained his earlier confidence.

“Scared I’ll win?” he asked cheekily, his smile bordering on more of a smirk.

And _that_ certainly pulled Riku out of his reverie.

“What?” he asked in disbelief.

“It’s okay, Riku, I get it,” Sora said, his tone utterly teasing, “The way I am now, it’s not so surprising that you’re intimidated. After all, this is one-hundred per cent what a winner looks like.”

“I thought you said earlier that you shouldn’t pick a fight with me,” Riku pointed out, raising an eyebrow. He could feel the beginnings of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Sora rolled his eyes. “What? That was _ages_ ago,” he said as if it wasn’t something he had said just this past hour. He wriggled the sword in front of Riku’s face. “So how about it? Or are you too chicken?”

Despite himself, Riku couldn’t hold back a bark of laughter, gripping the blade and pulling it out of Sora’s hand. “Aren’t you being a little too cocky for someone with a losing streak as impressive as yours?”

“Hey!” Sora said indignantly, “I won _some_!”

“Oh did you now?” Riku asked, fingers lightly wrapping around the grip of the wooden sword, his lips pulled so easily now into a smirk as he looked over Sora. “Because if I recall correctly, then our win-lose streak was actually—”

Sora rushed forward, his hand covering Riku’s mouth before he could say the number. “W-Well that was in the past! And I’m demanding a rematch now.” He stepped back, brandishing his sword. “I’m stronger than ever. I won’t lose now.”

“Like you’re the only one who got stronger,” Riku replied, holding his own weapon in front of him, and suddenly everything felt so _easy_. So natural. “Didn’t you used to say that you’d get taller than me as well?” he teased. “C’mon, Sora, drop the challenge. You’re clearly no match for me.”

“T-That, I-I’m still growing!” Sora spluttered, “I’ll definitely catch up!”

Riku really did burst out laughing at that. “Of _course_ you will. In your dreams. And in a reality where you can actually beat me in a swordfight.”

Sora’s eyes sparked with challenge and Riku very quickly realised that he had _missed_ this. The oppressive tension from earlier had lifted and maybe, if he closed his eyes and focused, the various Halloween costumes would fall away to be replaced by palm trees and a gentle sea breeze.

“Then it’s settled,” Sora said decidedly, grabbing Riku’s sword and marching over to the till so that he could pay for the items. “You and me, the long-awaited rematch!” He pumped his fist—that was still holding a sword—into the air and almost stabbed a lighting fixture dangling from the ceiling. The store attendant shot him an unimpressed look and Sora at least had the decency to look a little sheepish, even as Riku had to clamp a hand over his mouth to keep from snorting in amusement.

Maybe things weren’t so different, after all.

“So,” Riku said, easily catching the sword that Sora threw at him once they were outside, “You got a preference for the venue where I kick you arse again after all of these years?”

“You shouldn’t underestimate me, Riku,” Sora tutted, but he had been grinning ever since he had paid for their new weaponry. “How about… somewhere private? We can’t go all-out in a park if there’s kids around.”

Riku tended to agree. Their old sparring matches could quite easily have subsumed innocent passers-by because their surroundings became irrelevant once they had started. And Riku didn’t really fancy having the good people of Radiant Garden seeing him swinging a toy sword around, much less inadvertently hitting someone with it. “I’m not sure if there’s somewhere totally closed off, though,” Riku mused. “Plus it’s Sunday, so everyone is out and about.”

Sora stopped short, his eyes widening for a moment before he looked up at Riku with a conspiratorial glint in his eyes. “I can think of a place. How about the sports hall back on campus? Like you said, it’s Sunday, so none of the teams have practice today.”

“Are we even allowed in there?” Riku asked.

“Well, maybe not _technically_ ,” Sora admitted, “But I _am_ on multiple teams, and we _are_ planning on doing something sports-related, so I don’t see the issue.”

“In other words, ‘no’,” Riku chuckled.

“All we gotta do is be a little sneaky,” Sora reasoned, looking about himself as if their conversation might be being monitored. Riku wished he didn’t find Sora’s ridiculousness so damn endearing. “C’mon, we’ve decided to come this far already. And shouldn’t we have the perfect arena for our match? Although I guess it’s kind of a bummer that no one will be around to see my stunning victory…” He shot Riku a wink, and something within the omega seemed to ignite.

“Lead the way,” he found himself saying.

x~x~x~x~x

Riku felt like a little kid again when he and Sora, both giggling like idiots, sneaked their way into the sports hall. It was a vast space, with various coloured markings painted onto the hard wooden floor, denoting any number of different sports. There was a very faint hint of rubber in the air from where countless pairs of trainers had been running across the space, mingling with a hint of analgesic sprays and the fresh air filtering through the ventilation system.

Sora looked right at home as he surveyed their private battleground with a satisfied grin on his face. “This will be perfect,” he hummed, a skip in his step as he headed over to the side, carefully placing his sword down. He gripped the bottom of his hoodie and tugged it over his head, the material catching on whatever it was that Sora was wearing underneath and allowing Riku a brief moment to shamelessly ogle the muscle definition of his abs.

 _‘All those years of sports have definitely paid off,’_ he thought without really meaning to. He quickly caught himself and looked away sharply as soon as Sora had finally divested himself of the hoodie, throwing it carelessly to the floor. He straightened out his tank top before looking over to Riku. “You’re gonna keep your jacket on?”

No, he wasn’t, and honestly he felt a bit warmer now for reasons he’d rather not think about. He shrugged his jacket off, taking the time to fold it neatly and place it out of harm’s way. When he turned around he saw Sora standing in the middle of the hall, the wooden sword held in both of his hands while his knees were bent so that his centre of gravity was lowered. His battle stance hadn’t changed at all and a wave of nostalgia washed over him not unlike those of the sea used to back when they were on the islands.

Riku placed a hand over his heart, feeling it pulsing quicker in anticipation. It was crazy how something so simple as a stance could evoke so many memories and emotions at once.

“Geez, take your time Riku,” Sora teased, and Riku laughed softly before walking towards the centre as well, stopping when there were about five metres between himself and Sora.

“Sorry. I didn’t realise you were in such a hurry to lose,” he smirked, shifting his feet until they were about shoulder width apart. Muscle memory took over, and he placed his left arm in front of him, the palm of his hand upturned, before lifting his right hand holding the sword up above his head, pointing the weapon at Sora. He hadn’t done this in years, and yet it felt so natural, as if he had never stopped.

Sora’s eyes widened and a noise escaped him that sounded like a whole host of jumbled emotions leaving him at once—disbelief, joy, nostalgia—before lowering his hips a little more and gripping his sword tighter. “Riku!”

And suddenly he felt like his old self again, when the only things that mattered were a win-lose tally and hanging out with his best friend.

“You’d better not hold back, Sora,” he goaded, eyeing his opponent up. Now that he was out of his baggy hoodie it was plain to see that Sora was a man who took his exercise very seriously. His tight tank top stretched across a broad chest and did very little to hide the toned muscle lying underneath. And the many hours that Sora had spent training in the pool had bulked his arms up nicely. All in all, Sora’s body was one that screamed _power_ even if his bright and easy grin served to suggest otherwise. Riku shivered in anticipation of what Sora could do now, itching to find out what sparring him would be like.

“Hold back against _you_?” Sora asked, licking his lips. “I don’t think I can.” And with that he leapt forward, his speed so blinding that Riku would have been shocked had he not witnessed it two times prior to this. But even though he knew what to expect he still barely just side-stepped out of the way in time, his pulse already quickening in just this opening phase.

Sora neatly pivoted around and launched himself once more with such rapidity that Riku had no choice but to literally dive out of the way, neatly rolling before using this momentum to get back to his feet quickly. Sora smirked at him and tried the exact same thing again. It was reminiscent of a bull trying to charge down a matador. Each time Sora came at him with blistering speed, and each time Riku would narrowly escape a head-on collision.

So was this it? As impressive as Sora’s speed was, tactically he was lacking. “Stronger and faster, but not smarter, eh, Sora?” Riku teased as he stood tall, sword still held in place above his head.

Sora huffed a laugh. “Just testing,” he replied, but before Riku could question what he meant by that Sora was running at him again. Riku braced himself and side-stepped—but Sora was still right in front of him, having managed to stop his massive momentum and change his direction to match Riku’s perfectly. Riku’s eyes widened and so did Sora’s grin. “Gotcha~” he hummed, swinging his blade up and Riku quickly put his own out to absorb the brunt of the impact. He staggered back slightly, the force behind the swing an unrecognisable evolution from when they used to do this before.

“Heh. Guess I’ll have to get serious,” Riku said, ending the cat-and-mouse pattern by being the one to leap at Sora this time, blade coming around in a mighty arc. Sora’s sword met his halfway and they clashed against each other, making a foreboding splintering sound. At this rate they were definitely going to break their weapons. But for some reason, that thought had Riku’s pulse rocketing to almost maddening levels, and it wasn’t even wholly down to the sparring either.

This was the most fun he had had in ages.

They both sprang back, eyeing each other up before they both moved in tandem, Sora sweeping his blade low and Riku neatly leaping up to dodge it while bringing his own blade across in an effort to land a hit on Sora’s back. It failed to connect, Sora rolling out of the way just in time. His eyes had turned a shade darker and they narrowed at Riku in a way that made him shiver. Sora sprang up from his crouching position, blade intending to strike at Riku’s chest. Once more it was blocked and the resulting crash of wood on wood echoed around the hall. They both put their strength behind their weapons, pushing them against each other and Riku could feel his own blade beginning to yield under Sora’s strength.

Knowing that he needed to end this interlock of blades, Riku stopped putting his weight behind the exchange and quickly dodged to the side when this naturally unbalanced Sora, who stumbled forward. Sensing an opening, Riku dragged his blade across the floor with the aim of knocking Sora off of his feet completely. But Sora was quick, even when staggered, and just before the sword could topple him Sora’s feet were in the air, body twisting mid-air so that when he landed they were facing each other once more.

Both of them were taking in heavy gulps of air in this brief interim, before an almost _savage_ grin materialised on Sora’s lips. Riku’s grip on his sword tightened, his body tensed but excited to see what on earth that grin meant.

The brunette leapt forward so rapidly that Riku had to quickly stagger backwards, and that seemed to have been the opening that Sora was seeking to create. “You’re finished!” he cried as he leapt up into the air, his sword high above him.

What happened next seemed to occur in slow motion. Riku could see Sora bringing the blade down in what was sure to be a devastating blow, factoring in the arc of the swing and his falling momentum. Riku kept his eyes resolutely on the sword, planting his feet firmly and switching his hold on his own sword to that reminiscent of holding a baseball bat. He timed it perfectly, swinging his sword at just the right moment so as to catch Sora’s. The resulting clash, at the mercy of both of them using their full strength, caused Sora’s sword to fly out of his hands and Riku’s sword to splinter entirely, shattering into smaller pieces so that he was left just holding the grip.

Riku’s eyes were following the arc of Sora’s sword as it flew to the other side of the gym, and he was just about to open his mouth to declare victory in their match when he felt hot breath against his ear. “You haven’t won yet; you followed the wrong target,” Sora murmured, causing Riku to shiver and quickly turn to Sora—just as he crashed into him, the two of them falling to the floor and Riku’s hold on what remained of his sword giving way.

Riku wanted to curse his stupidity. Sora was right; his eyes were looking at the wrong place. Their sparring matches often just ended in straight-up wrestling, and now Riku was at a disadvantage. They rolled over a few times, hands grappling to gain purchase against the other and turn the tables once and for all. Riku barely registered how uncomfortable the maple hardwood floor was underneath their struggle. All that mattered was chasing victory.

Sora would push and Riku would pull, one would be on top for one second and then be immediately toppled by the other as the both of them used the momentum to keep rolling around, to keep pushing, hands against shoulders, pulling hair, smoothing over chests and _god_ , it felt like the temperature of the entire room had just _skyrocketed_. Sora’s body was so hot to the touch that it almost burnt, his hands leaving trails of fire wherever they roamed and his lips capturing the utterly needy moan Riku let out as they finally came to a stop, Sora’s hands pinning his wrists to the floor as they kissed with fierce desperation.

It was as if the two of them could only survive if they drank the other in. Tongues twined messily together, hot and wet and totally imperfect, there was definitely some clashing of teeth, but hell if it didn’t leave Riku trembling. He needed more, so much more; just this couldn’t possibly hope to extinguish the burning desire he felt to his core.

Eventually air became something of a necessity and they pulled apart, ragged pants escaping the pair of them. Riku attempted to use his newly freed mouth to explain that this couldn’t possibly be enough, but it seemed the only thing he was capable of saying was, “ _Sora_ ,” in a way Riku didn’t even know he was capable of. “Sora, _please_ ,” he asked, requested, begged, trying to get his wrists free so that he could _touch_ him.

Sora gasped violently, as if the air had just been punched out of him. “F-Fuck, Riku…” He looked down at him, his sky blue eyes darkened to the point where it looked like a tempest resided within them, pupils blown wide. He swallowed. “No matter what you say, there’s no way I’m _not_ the winner here.” Those eyes roved over him hungrily, unruly spikes of hair even messier given their tussle, and Riku bit his lip as he watched a drop of sweat sliding down Sora’s neck. He was utterly irresistible.

“That’s my line,” Riku murmured, leaning up to catch that drop of sweat on his tongue before burying his face in the crook of Sora’s neck and inhaling deeply. He moaned at the scent, _Sora’s_ scent, wishing that he could cover himself entirely in it. Rubbing up against Sora seemed like the quickest way to make that happen and Riku didn’t feel the slightest bit of shame as he bucked his hips up, ridiculously aroused already. He was delighted to find that Sora was just as excited as he was, both of them groaning at the friction between their clothed erections. Sora’s grip on Riku’s wrists slackened, and Riku took the opportunity to hook his index finger through Sora’s chain necklace and tug him into another searing kiss.

Riku tried to recapture the friction from earlier by rolling his hips again, but he kept getting distracted. Distracted by Sora’s tongue doing sinful things to his mouth, by Sora’s fingers teasing his nipples through his t-shirt until the hardened nubs were lewdly visible through the material, by Sora’s teeth capturing Riku’s bottom lip and tugging in a way that elicited yet another embarrassing sound from the omega. He had never been so turned on in his entire life, every inch of him responding to Sora’s ministrations.

“You’re so beautiful, Riku,” Sora praised him, his voice deep and husky through his lust, thick and sweet like honey. In any other situation Riku would have been inclined to scoff at those words, but right now the compliment made his erratically beating heart sing in the knowledge that the alpha was pleased by him. He wanted Sora to keep talking, to hear that honeyed voice murmuring sweet nothings or whispering dirty things. But more than that, what Riku wanted…

It actually wasn’t hard to reverse their positions, both of them preoccupied as they were with each other to bother about defending the high ground. Sora blinked up at him, a question clearly on his lips, but it bled out into a moan the instant Riku ground his hips down, the filthy drag of their clothed cocks against each other sending shockwaves through Riku’s body. _‘More,’_ he thought, single-minded now in his pursuit to be sated, and began grinding against Sora in earnest.

He could feel it, the familiar beginnings of that tight hot coil in his abdomen. _‘More, more, more,’_ he thought, and then suddenly Sora’s hands were on his arse, gripping tight, and he forcefully pulled Riku’s hips down as his own ground up. Riku actually did feel embarrassed this time at how loud his cry of pleasure had been, seemingly echoing endlessly around the hall, and Sora growled as he did it again and again, building up to a merciless pace as they rutted against each other.

It was getting hotter and hotter, and Riku’s entire vocabulary really had been reduced to one single word: Sora. It fell from his lips like a prayer when he wasn’t using them to meld against the alpha’s, kissing him with all of the passion he possessed. It felt good, _so good_ , and Riku wondered if Sora could feel how wet he was from where he was gripping his arse through the material of his jeans. He couldn’t remember ever being turned on like this outside of his heats.

It was one deliciously hard thrust of Sora’s hips that finally undid Riku. The friction, the heat, all of it overwhelmed his senses and he came harder than he ever had before, eyes rolling to the back of his head as he called out Sora’s name. Almost immediately after this, Sora’s thrusts became erratic before he stiffened below him, his grasp on vocabulary far more impressive than Riku’s own. “Fuck, so good, Riku, you’re perfect, Riku, _Riku_!”

Riku practically collapsed on top of Sora, his limbs unable to support himself any longer. He lay his head against Sora’s hard chest, content to listen to his heartbeat gradually even out. Sora’s fingers gently carded through his hair, and for a while they lay there in satisfied silence, basking in the afterglow. Riku wasn’t sure how long it took for some of his common sense to return to him, but eventually he became aware of exactly where they were, and what they had just done.

The omega shifted, pushing himself up onto his arms so that he could get a good look at Sora’s face. He looked like the very definition of bliss: his eyes so full of warmth and contentment, a lazy smile on his lips. Riku couldn’t stop himself from dipping down to place a lingering kiss against those lips.

“We just broke so many courtship rules…” he murmured.

Sora reached out and gently tucked a strand of Riku’s hair behind his ear. “Yeah…”

A long pause stretched out between them. And then, in perfect unison, they began laughing, the bright peals echoing throughout the gymnasium.

So much for ‘taking it slow’.

“What the heck, Sora?” Riku asked, unable to keep the smile off of his face. “I thought you were going to be the alpha I deserved. And yet you jump me in a sports hall?”

“Wha- _hey_ ,” Sora protested through his laughter. “ _You_ were the one who kissed _me_ first!”

“No way, that was definitely you.”

“Stop spreading fake news,” Sora grinned, sticking his tongue out.

“Stop denying the truth. You definitely were the one to push me down.”

“As part of our _sparring_ match,” Sora stressed. “I didn’t have any ulterior motives!”

Riku raised a sceptical eyebrow at that, and Sora turned bright red.

“A-Anyway, the outcome of the match,” he said, swiftly changing the topic with very little tact and causing Riku to laugh again. “I guess… it’s a draw?"

“A draw?” Riku repeated, pushing himself up so that he could stand again. He immediately cringed at the sticky mess his underwear had become. That was _not_ pleasant. “I… think both of us might have lost,” Riku said after a moment, holding his hand out to Sora.

“Losers? What makes you say that?” The alpha took the proffered hand and he was pulled up. Almost instantly Sora’s face twisted in disgust, hands flying to fiddle with the hem of his pants as if that would make any tangible difference. “Oh.”

They looked at each other sheepishly, tacitly acknowledging that they _had_ just rutted against each other like a couple of horny teenagers in the middle of a sports hall that they had illegally sneaked into after getting too riled up fighting with cheap toy swords and ended up soiling their underwear in the process.

And then they were laughing again.

“Next time I’ll make sure it’s romantic,” Sora promised, and Riku’s heart flipped in his chest at the prospect of a ‘next time’. Not that he’d admit it.

“A romantic swordfight?” he asked, being deliberately obtuse.

Sora flicked his shoulder. “Don’t be an arse.”

“But you seemed to like my arse a whole lot just now.”

“ _Riku!_ ” Sora pretended to be scandalised, but then he shook his head and grinned, looping his arm around Riku’s waist. “Well, can you blame me?” he asked, giving Riku’s bum a cheeky pinch and causing Riku to yelp.

“Sora! Why you—” but Sora was already running off, laughing brightly as he scooped up some of the broken remnants of what had once been Riku’s sword.

“C’mon, Riku! We gotta clean this place up and then I need to raid a shower.”

Putting the sports hall back into proper order went smoothly, owing to the fact that both of them were in urgent need of a wash. Despite it all, though, Sora insisted on walking Riku back to his dorm, the two of them trying to be discrete but utterly failing when they kept giggling amongst themselves, smelling very obviously of sex and each other. For once, Riku was far too happy to care about what people may have thought.

As Sora kissed him goodbye—a sweet, lingering thing that promised so much more that Riku was already wishing ‘next time’ was here—Riku wondered why on earth he had been so worried earlier. Yes, things had changed. But some things, precious things, they had stayed the same. Hadn’t they?

But of course, all good things must come to an end, and Riku’s blissed-out good mood ended when he got out of his shower and checked his phone. It was indicating that he had a message waiting for him, and he assumed that it was from Kairi. Shame on him for making assumptions.

_1 missed call from Ansem._

**Ansem:** Your presence is required this Wednesday. I look forward to catching up with you, my little moonbeam.

And just like that, Riku was reminded of just how precarious this whole thing was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Timpini: This is the longest porn with plot ever.
> 
> Me: It sure seems that way...
> 
> Thank you so much for taking the time to read my work. I hope you'll continue to stick with it through the upcoming spiciness and drama!!
> 
> Comments give me life :)
> 
> May your lives be blessed with bountiful SoRiku goodness~


	4. Of Duty And Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riku struggles with his family situation, but Sora’s light chases away his insecurities. Or maybe it just gives him new ones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh, real talk. For literally over a decade I was too worried to write SoRiku fanfic because I always saw Riku as a bottom, and I thought the fandom would think I was mad. Then I became older and stopped caring about that. ~~I mean obviously, the first bloody thing I wrote for SoRiku was a freakin' Zumba fic XD~~  
>  When I started writing this fic I thought I'd have about 2 readers because not only have I gone and written an omegaverse fic, but I went and made _Riku_ the omega. And yet this work has become my most popular piece on AO3. So thank you so much, everyone, from the bottom of my heart. I genuinely could not have foreseen such a wonderful response to this fic, but I hope I can continue to make this something you all enjoy reading.
> 
> A big thank you to [Timpini](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Timpini/pseuds/Timpini) as always for being my beta, and special thanks to [Nessotherly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nessotherly/pseuds/Nessotherly) for being my Latin correspondent for this chapter. You diving back into your Latin textbooks has allowed Riku's family to be that bit more extra, so it was all for a worthy cause :P
> 
>  **NOTE:** Just a heads up. I am more interested in the social dynamics and those sorts of aspects of the omegaverse. M-preg has never been something I've been interested in. Given the nature of the omegaverse, there will be mentions and discussions of m-preg, but it is not something that will feature in this fic.

“…dad?” Riku peeked shyly around the door, watching as his father’s frame straightened up from where it had been huddled over the desk in his study.

“And what are you doing up, young man?” the alpha asked, but when he turned around he was smiling. “Didn’t your mother put you to bed over an hour ago?”

“Yes,” Riku admitted guiltily. “But I couldn’t sleep.” He hovered awkwardly in the doorway, wondering if his father would just shoo him away. He always had a lot of work to do. “So I…” Riku hesitated, fiddling with the hem of his pyjama top.

“Back straight,” his father said, and Riku quickly snapped to attention. The alpha nodded in approval. “Now, what were you saying? Full sentences, Riku. Trailing off as you did demonstrates hesitation and, therefore, weakness. Are you weak?”

“N-No!”

“Do not stutter.”

“Sorry…” Riku bit his lip. This had been a mistake, after all. He should have gone to find his mother, or his nanny.

His father sighed, running a hand through his wild silver mane of hair. Daichi Getsumei was an imposing man, tall and broad, with a physique that looked no less large and intimidating sat down than when he was standing at full height. He inspired fear and respect from those who gazed upon him. The perfect alpha. “What is it you came here for, Riku?”

“I was wondering if you’d tell me a story,” Riku answered, taking his time to deliberately pronounce each word, no stuttering this time. It was hard to keep his gaze forward, though, when his father raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him.

“A story?”

“Y-Yes.” Riku cringed. He’d get told off for that again. To his surprise, though, his father let it slide.

“What sort of story?”

“Any kind is fine,” Riku insisted, eyes wide with surprise and hope. He didn’t think his father would actually agree to it. “But Sora’s mum would always tell these fantasy stories and—”

“So that’s it,” the alpha sighed. “Kanga told me that you’ve not been sleeping too well this past month. Is it because that boy moved away?”

Riku bit his lip, gazing sadly at the floor. “I miss him,” he whispered. Sora was his only friend, and now he was gone. There was no one to play with any more, no one to break up the long days of private lessons and loneliness.

“I see no merit in filling your head with fantastical nonsense,” Daichi replied, but he did pat his lap, beckoning Riku to come and sit. The young boy padded across the room, hesitating for a moment before he reached out and he was pulled up onto his father’s lap. “However, I can tell you a tale far greater, for this tale is true.”

Riku peered up at him curiously. “A true story?”

“Yes,” his father smiled. “Many generations ago, our ancestors unlocked the secrets of the earth. They cultivated it in ways thought unimaginable, and from that earth brought forth food that would sustain them, and medicines that would heal them. From the earth they drew strength. The strength to endure, but most importantly, the strength to protect. And this strength has been passed down through the ages. While our family has grown considerably since then, with multiple branches to our mighty family tree, the roots have remained steadfastly and firmly with us.” He placed a hand gently over his son’s heart, eyes shining with pride.

“Like my father, and his father before him, we hail from a long line of alphas that keep this family prospering no matter how the landscape may change around us. We are the strength that protects, the alpha guardians of our family’s destiny. And one day you, too, shall lead us all into a new age of prosperity. Make no mistake, Riku: there are branches that would seek to disrupt the eco-system that has seen our family flourish. But their bull-headedness must not be countenanced. When it is your time you must lead, proud and strong, as the head of this family, and never for a minute give them a reason to doubt you. The path of a leader is a solitary one, but the strength to walk it is within you. After all,” he grinned, ruffling Riku’s hair, “You are my son, and you will make a fine alpha one day.”

Riku gazed at him with wide eyes, trying to piece it all together. He knew some of this, knew that he was meant to take over one day, but this was the first time it was even slightly explained to him _what_ being the head of the family actually entailed. “The strength to protect,” he murmured.

“Yes. _Vis ad protegendum_. That is the way of a Getsumei.”

Riku thought back to the day Sora had left, watching as the ferry he was on got smaller and smaller until it disappeared on the horizon. He had done what he could, and his parents had been mad at him for giving his necklace away, but Riku hadn’t felt strong. He had been powerless. “How do I get it? The strength to protect?”

“You let us guide you. Study hard to encourage a strong mind, keep your body in peak physical condition, commit to the values of our family. And when you present as an alpha, these foundations will evolve and continue to grow, imbuing you with this strength.”

So to get that strength, he needed to be an alpha… but he knew that already. It’s why he had to wait now.

_“Hurry up and become an alpha already!”_

“I will,” Riku said, expression one of fierce determination. “I’ll become the biggest, strongest alpha there is.”

“That’s my boy!” his father laughed, wrapping his arms tight around him and scooping him up. “But for now, focus on rest. You can’t expect to be strong if you have no energy left. So let’s get you to bed, Riku.”

It was novel, having his father be the one to tuck him in that night, and the instant his head hit the pillow Riku squeezed his eyes tight shut. The quicker he fell asleep, the closer he got to a future where he wouldn’t be so powerless any more.

 _Vis ad protegendum_. The strength to protect. The strength of an alpha.

One day, that strength would be his.

x~x~x~x~x

It was a chilly Tuesday evening. The trees seemed to get barer each time Riku glanced up at them, and he tugged uselessly at his jacket as if that could be any sort of defence against the cold. He wasn’t altogether sure that the chill in his bones was due entirely to the weather. Whenever he was summoned there was always a sense of dread that wouldn’t dissipate until the whole ghastly affair was over.

Tomorrow… of course this would happen just as Riku had gotten on top of his workload again. Yet another day of missed lessons. Did they think it was easy to stay on top? He wasn’t a miracle worker. Something had to give somewhere, and that something had been sleep. Honestly he’d rather just be curled up on his bed right now, not heading to the library so that he could try and pre-empt tomorrow’s workload.

His satchel thumped heavily against his hip with every step he took, filled as it was with notebooks and textbooks and even official university documents that he had needed to go to the effort of acquiring, all for the sake of tomorrow’s obligatory stupidity.

Just the thought of Ansem’s smug face had Riku balling his hands into fists. If only he could punch that look away.

As some weird quirk of fate would have it, Riku tuned into a conversation occurring on the quad a few metres away from him.

“Please go away,” a young woman was saying, her voice soft spoken but nevertheless belying her discomfort at the situation. Her eyes were firmly fixed on the grass below her feet, blonde hair falling in such a way as to obscure her facial expression. Not that it was necessary; Riku could smell the underlying fear in her scent, marring what otherwise would have been something akin to vanilla. It almost smelled like paint, albeit rancid.

“Aw, c’mon, babe, I’m just asking for one little date,” the smarmy alpha practically plastering himself against her was saying.

Riku narrowed his eyes at the sight. Well then. Just when he was itching for a fight… not the alpha he wanted to punch, but he would do.

“Hey,” he called out, stepping over to the two students, “Why don’t you leave her alone?”

“And who the fuck are you?” the alpha sneered.

“Someone who thinks you should stop harassing this omega. She clearly doesn’t want you around. Or are you deaf as well as dumb?” Riku was asking for it, really. He had no intention of deescalating this, and the alpha seemed like the sort of hot-headed idiot who would fall for it.

“The hell d’ya just call me?!”

The omega was looking at Riku with wide blue eyes, but she didn’t miss her chance to dart behind him, and Riku put his arm out to protect her. “Oh, so you are deaf after all?” he smirked.

The alpha let out a low growl. “Where do you get off talking to me like that, _omega_?” he spat, and Riku’s jaw clenched. “Naminé, doll, tell this guy to fuck off, will ya? Tell him that we’re friends.”

The young woman did no such thing, and that only seemed to further enrage the idiot before him. He was tall and thick, his hair in a buzz cut, and he was actually glaring _down_ at Riku. Not that he had that much height on him, but it was something Riku noted for if (when) it turned ugly.

“Honestly, the omega entitlement these days makes me sick. You should be _grateful_ to have caught my attention! But instead I get spoken to with such disrespect… you need to be put in your place!”

“And where would that be?” Riku asked. _Almost there_.

“On your damn knees you smarmy fucker!” He threw a punch, a sloppy one all things considered, and Riku didn’t hesitate to put his forearm up in a block before grabbing the alpha’s wrist, neatly pivoting behind him and locking the arm into place. He applied pressure and the alpha hissed in pain.

“I’ll break it,” Riku said simply, pushing even harder so that the alpha ended up doubled over. “Now, apologise to her.”

“What? How dare—agh!” Riku jerked his arm up and in a beautiful twist of poetic irony the alpha ended up on knees.

“ _Apologise_ ,” Riku repeated.

“Tch, f-fuck you,” the alpha gasped, but he did drop his head after a moment and through gritted teeth said, “S-Sorry.”

“You can do better than that,” Riku said, but the blonde omega cut him off.

“No that’s… that’s enough. I’m fine now. So please just let him go. I just want to go home.” Riku looked at her for a long moment before he clicked his tongue.

“Fine,” he acquiesced, taking the pressure off. “Try anything and I swear I’ll do worse than break something,” he muttered to the alpha before releasing his hold and neatly stepping back. The alpha immediately rubbed at his sore arm, glaring at Riku but otherwise not trying anything. Before long he had skulked off and Riku was looking at the young woman with concern. “Are you okay?”

“Yes. Thank you,” she smiled, bowing her head. “I didn’t think he’d ever leave.”

“I don’t know how someone like that could possibly be a student here,” he sighed, “But you should be careful.”

“I will,” she nodded, before peering up at him curiously. She very pointedly looked him up and down, as if studying him, and Riku’s eyebrows furrowed.

“Is something wrong?”

“You’re an omega?” she asked.

“Yeah…”

“What a shame,” she murmured under her breath, but Riku caught it nevertheless. Right. He was used to it being ‘a shame’. He’d had enough people say it straight to him and many more say it with their pitying glances.

_‘Oh he turned out to be an omega? What a shame.’_

_‘You bring shame to the Getsumei name.’_

_‘It’s a shame you’re an omega, Riku. If you were an alpha, I’d totally date you!’_

“I get that a lot,” Riku said bitterly.

The girl gasped, holding up her hands. “Oh no, I didn’t mean—”

“It’s fine. Take care of yourself, okay?” He adjusted his satchel and stalked off towards the library, quite possibly in a worse mood than before.

As if on autopilot, Riku made his way to his usual spot in the library, trudging up all of the stairs to reach the top floor and hide himself away in his usual corner. He paused when he got there, reaching out and gently running his fingers along the bookshelf that Sora had crashed into on the day they were reunited.

Did Sora think it was a shame, too? Was he also disappointed?

“Damn it,” Riku muttered, hurrying to empty the contents of his bag onto the desk. Maybe he could distract himself with essays.

It took a while—at first Riku kept reading the same sentence over and over again because it was impossible to focus—but at some point he was able to ease into it and he settled down, making notes and coming up with an essay plan. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but just as he was about to start a new chapter he perked up, eyes naturally drawn upwards.

Warmth. The scent of the sun.

 _Sora_.

Said alpha stuck his head around the corner as opposed to running around it this time, and he grinned when he saw Riku. “Thought I’d find you here, Riku,” he hummed, making his way over to the desk. A gym bag was slung haphazardly over his shoulder and he dumped it unceremoniously onto the floor before taking a seat opposite him.

Riku detected the faint hint of chlorine and Sora’s hair was slightly less spiky than usual. “How was practice?” he asked, easily putting two-and-two together.

“Tiring,” Sora laughed, “We did a _lot_ of drills today.”

“So how come you’re here? Don’t you want to go home?”

“Well, yeah,” Sora admitted, “But!” He reached down and unzipped his gym bag, pulling out a textbook. Wait. Sora kept his books in the same bag as his sports gear? “I’ve gotta study for a test. _Plus_ ,” he reached out and squeezed Riku’s hand, “I wanted to see you.”

Riku blinked at him before a small smile came unbidden to his lips. “I see,” he said, feeling himself relaxing as the ever-present chill he had been feeling melted under Sora’s warmth. “I guess… I wanted to see you too.”

“You guess?” Sora chuckled, and Riku shook Sora’s hand off so he could pretend to swat at him. “And after I was so open with you just now, Riku…”

“ _Fine_. I wanted to see you too, you dork.”

Sora gasped, holding a hand dramatically over his heart. “Is this your first pet name for me?” he asked, eyes glinting. “Because don’t get me wrong, it’s _kinda_ cute, but I was thinking more along the lines of ‘sweetheart’ or ‘darling’ or—”

“Doofus?” Riku suggested.

“Hmm, we may have to work on this, cupcake.”

Riku stifled a laugh behind his hand, shaking his head. “We _definitely_ need to work on this.” Sora was looking at him expectantly, a small half smile on his lips, and Riku rolled his eyes. “Okay okay. Even though I literally saw you this morning, I missed you, _Sora_ , and wanted to see you. There, happy?”

“Very,” Sora beamed, and Riku thought it was unfair for someone to look so radiant.

“Ah, right, speaking of seeing each other in the mornings, I won’t be here tomorrow.” Sora tilted his head to the side in question, and Riku sighed. “I need to attend to some family stuff. I’ll be back tomorrow evening, though.”

“Family stuff? All day?” Sora asked. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, just a meeting. I have to be there, seeing as I’m going to take over one day. Or, well, that’s the plan for now…”

“‘For now’? Even back when we were kids you said you’d be the head of your family, so why ‘for now’? Did something change?” Sora genuinely didn’t seem to comprehend _why_ things may have been different now. He looked at Riku in the same way he had back then, as someone who would always be able to figure out even the toughest of situations, no matter what. It was flattering and painful all at once. If only the world could be as simple and clean as Sora viewed it.

“I did,” Riku muttered, turning his gaze away. “But I’ll make them see that an ome—” he cut himself off, sighing in frustration. “That someone like me is good enough.”

Sora squeezed his hand once more. “What do your family do again?”

“My family, the Getsumei Group, made their name in pharmaceuticals. But as our family grew, different members sought to extend our influence, so now we have all sorts of industries that we are involved in. The simplest way to put it is that we are a conglomerate, with a Getsumei at the head of all of the different businesses we have. My father is the head of all of them, director of the parent company and responsible for overseeing everything. He ensures that our family stays strong, protecting it from outside interference and protecting the natural order of things. He keeps them in line. As the head alpha, important decisions, business or personal, must be run by him. Something like a new business strategy, or a request to take someone as a mate and therefore inviting them into our ranks… all of it goes through him.”

“Sounds complicated,” Sora said. “And that’s what you’re gonna do?”

_‘Who has ever heard of a head omega?’_

_‘We can’t have an omega leading us.’_

_‘Daichi, do you honestly think you can still be head alpha, when you have failed to provide us with a suitable heir? You know that Riku is no good.’_

“Yes,” Riku replied, voice ringing with an entirely rehearsed authority. He still needed to find it. _Vis ad protegendum_. The strength to protect. The strength of an alpha… Without that, he’d never be accepted. Without that, the path that he walked would crumble and fall, lost to him forever.

“That’s amazing, Riku!” Riku blinked, and Sora was leaning over the desk, looking at him as if he was something special. “If anyone can do it, you can.” He didn’t waver, never faltered in his belief in Riku. How was it that Sora could state something like that so confidently, especially after everything that had happened? Sora didn’t _really_ know Riku any more, although they were slowly relearning each other now. But Riku didn’t think he had demonstrated anything to Sora that would lead him to draw such a conclusion.

This simple, effortless confidence… was this the strength he had been searching for? Should he envy Sora for it?

“You’ll blow them away tomorrow,” Sora grinned. “Let me know when you’re back, yeah? I wanna hear all about it.”

“I…” Riku bit his lip. Who was he to go against such blind faith? Even if it was misguided, it felt good to have someone hold a positive image of him for once. And so he forced a smirk onto his lips, running a hand casually through his hair as he said, “Of course. Just leave it to me.”

x~x~x~x~x

Riku had been staring at the gold plate embossed with _Room 713_ for about two minutes now, eyes tracing the numbers carefully as he tried to psych himself up. The heavy wood of the door stood tall and imposing, and not for the first time Riku wondered _why_ Ansem had insisted that they meet in his hotel room as opposed to meeting in the lobby. Where there were people, where it wasn’t so claustrophobic, where it was safer.

But Riku knew why, and with a clench of his jaw he knocked.

It felt almost galling to have to ask for permission to enter. This hotel belonged to the Getsumei Group, and Ansem easily could have left a key for him in the lobby, but instead Riku had to wait for the man on the other side of the door to take his time.

But soon enough he heard movement, and then the heavy door was swinging open. Ansem leant casually against it, amber eyes raking up his form before settling on his face, lips pulling into an unnervingly pleasant smile. “Riku,” he purred, “It has been far too long.”

“Really? I’d say it hasn’t been long enough,” Riku replied, brushing past Ansem and stepping into the room. The other man merely chuckled and closed the door behind them.

The room was spacious, furnished in such a way as to straddle the line between elegant and gaudy. Wood panelling decorated the walls and a coffee table that looked like it had been hewn directly from a tree trunk stood in front of a plush white corner sofa. A decanter of brandy stood upon the table, and Ansem calmly walked over to it and poured himself a glass, then made to fill the second.

“I still don’t drink,” Riku said, but Ansem poured it anyway. Whether he was deliberately trying to ply him with alcohol or merely giving Riku a way to take the edge off of everything, he never truly knew.

“Such discipline,” Ansem intoned, “You need to learn to enjoy the pleasures of life, my little moonbeam.”

Riku stiffened at the nickname, and it was all he could do to not back up when Ansem crossed the room, holding one of the glasses out to him.

“Take it.”

An order. Riku glared up at the alpha, but he still had that infuriating smile playing on his lips, one that belied that he knew Riku would obey. The omega clenched his fists, but Ansem’s scent was overwhelming. The scent of mahogany, of dark chocolate, and the bracing bite of liquor. Pure indulgence. Even without taking a single sip of what was being held out to him, it was enough to make Riku feel slightly drunk.

Ansem came to a stop in front of him, amber eyes looking at him expectantly while his scent deliberately intensified. Riku tried to combat it with his own, but he had less control over it, and before long it became too much. He simply couldn’t take that _look_ , and he broke, eyes darting to the floor and head bowing in submission as he snatched the crystal tumbler and held it in a death grip.

“Good boy,” Ansem murmured, reaching out to pat his head. Riku quickly swatted it away with his free hand, taking a step back.

Dammit.

Ansem just smirked at him. “Ah, speaking of enjoying the pleasures of life, I believe you recently had your heat. It is gratifying to see that you appreciate their importance instead of falling prey to suppressants. Unlike your poor mother—”

“You leave her out of this!” Riku snapped, but Ansem merely shrugged it off in an action so casual as to be offensive. How dare he even _think_ that he had the right to talk about that?

“How did your heat go?” Asnem asked, completely glossing over his gross overstepping of boundaries.

“Uneventful,” Riku ground out. “Though I fail to see how it is any business of yours.”

“Well, getting all caught up after being out of action for ten days is no mean feat. I merely wanted to ensure it didn’t have any negative impacts.”

Riku’s eyes widened. Ansem knew how long it had been? “How did you—”

“It is my business to know everything about you,” Ansem said, eyebrow raised. “But you know this. Keeping secrets from me is futile, you know.”

“I think you take your job as my father’s loyal little lapdog a bit too seriously.”

Ansem’s eyes narrowed, and Riku at least counted that as some small victory. It was a sore spot for Ansem. He shared the same father as Daichi, but had a different mother, as was standard practice back then. It was still around today, albeit less in vogue. An alpha would have their mate, but there was no limit on how many partners alphas were legally allowed to take so long as they could provide for all of them. Daichi was the son of the previous head alpha’s mate, and so naturally the line of succession belonged with him, but children born of the other partners had their roles to play. This is why the Getsumei family was as large as it was, why there were so many branches to their grand old tree. And Riku’s presenting had certainly shaken those branches, with new claims of legitimacy to be the head suddenly being mounted from them.

Daichi was unusual for a Getsumei head in that he married for love and took no further partners after finding his mate. Furthermore, he only had one child. He had bet it all on Riku, and look what had happened.

“Your father is a fool,” Ansem said coldly. “He does not realise the asset that he has in you. You and I both know that I needn’t look at those,” he gestured to the satchel slung across Riku’s shoulder, containing all of his latest university transcripts. Anything less than perfection would be unacceptable, and it was Ansem’s job to ensure that Riku stayed on track and report his progress back. “ _I_ have no doubt that even with your heat you were able to keep to your exemplary standards. But he and some of our other dear family have nothing _but_ doubt.”

Riku’s hand ran over the satchel. It was true; every grade on his transcripts was perfect. And yet it never felt like it would be enough. They still saw him as weak.

“But still, you are nineteen now. Your heats are surely becoming more and more unbearable without an alpha there with you. Most omegas your age have already found a mate, already planning for their first pregnancy… omegas are deeply instinctual and sexual creatures. It wouldn’t do to keep denying that part of you, Riku.” He closed the distance between them once more. “Wouldn’t it be easier to stop pushing yourself in this manner? Do not worry; I will be here to run things in your stead. Allow me to bear some of your burden.”

There it was. The true reason Ansem always had such an intense interest in his affairs. He was more blatant than the other naysayers gunning to be the next head, but also far cleverer than them.

“ _I_ am the one who will lead this family,” Riku gritted out.

“And you shall,” Ansem stated plainly, “But there is no harm in asking for help. Let us lead it together.”

“Like you wouldn’t try to usurp me the instant I let my guard down.”

“Do not forget that I am your greatest ally,” Ansem said, voice firm, dripping with a confidence that Riku could only imitate right now. “Who was the one who was there for you when your father turned his back on you?”

Riku clenched his drink tighter. “You were,” he said begrudgingly.

“And who is the one constantly defending your right to succeed Daichi when family members come to me seeking assurances that I would support any challenge they should launch?”

“You are.”

“Have I ever, even once, failed to support you in your endeavours?”

“…no.”

“Exactly.” Ansem placed a hand under Riku’s chin, forcing him to look into that piercing gaze. “I am the only one that you can rely on, Riku. I care for you very much, care for you as if you were my own son.” The older man cupped his cheek. His fingers were warm but it sent chills running through Riku’s body. “I see your potential, my little moonbeam, and all I want is to make you shine. So drop your resistance and give yourself to me. Do so, and I shall eliminate all obstacles in your path. Your ascension is assured.”

Riku had no intentions of ever indebting himself to Ansem to that degree. In that scenario he’d merely be a figurehead with no real power. Ansem clearing the path is not Riku making it to the end using his own strength. Ansem may have been his greatest ally, but the alpha was also his greatest foe. He would not be used so that Ansem could gain power.

“We should get going,” Riku said instead of answering, stepping past Ansem and digging around in his satchel. He produced the necessary documents and placed them on the coffee table, the proof that at least on paper he was still good enough, before heading to the door. “Let’s go.”

Ansem didn’t reply, simply downed the rest of his drink. His jaw was set in grim determination. He wasn’t at all happy, but it wasn’t Riku’s job to please him.

The atmosphere between the two of them was fraught, not a single further word spoken as they took the lift down to the lobby and headed for the conference room. Riku was ashamed to admit that he hesitated before entering, and Ansem no doubt caught it with the way his features relaxed into something smug.

Inside were various members of his family, all sat around a table, all looking gravely serious as always. His father sat at the head of it, but he didn’t even afford Riku the passing kindness of an acknowledgement. He always saw right through him these days, not even extending him the dignity of checking his damn grades himself, let alone ask how he was doing. No, any fatherly duty he may have felt had died the day he presented.

Through practice Riku was able to stand tall despite the looks being thrown at him by everyone else, their doubts and mistrust plain to see. Their gazes were almost as cold as the room itself; the air conditioning had been turned up high. There was no need for it; it was autumn, after all. Riku wasn’t sure who had been the one to turn it on, but keeping it like that was a clear way of saying that this was no place for Riku. Omegas were sensitive to the cold and the chill that ran through his body was nearly unbearable, but he moved in anyway and took a seat, determinedly ignoring all of it.

“Now now, is this really necessary?” Ansem asked smoothly, making a show of going over to the air conditioning controls and turning it off entirely. “Let us be kind and accommodating, understanding that some among us have certain needs and sensitivities.”

Riku seethed silently. Under the table his hands were clenched into tight fists, his nails leaving indents on his palms. Ansem took a seat next to him, shooting him a haughty smile, and it was obvious that Riku had lost. The tone had been set, and the meeting was poised to be more unbearable now than the previous cold could ever hoped to have been.

x~x~x~x~x

 _Today at 5:23 pm  
_**Sora** : Hiya Riku! How did the family thing go? x

 _Today at 5:47 pm  
_**Riku** : Not too great. I just feel tired.

 _Today at 5:48 pm  
_**Sora** : Wow, that good huh? When are you back? x

 _Today at 5:50 pm  
_**Riku** : In about an hour. Being driven back now.

 _Today at 5:51 pm  
_**Sora** : Mmmkay! x

 _Today at 5:51 pm  
_**Riku** : Why?

 _Today at 5:52 pm  
_**Sora** : Secret~ ;P x

 _Today at 5:53 pm  
_**Riku** : Should I be concerned?

 _Today at 5:55 pm  
_**Riku** : Sora?

 _Today at 6:04 pm  
_**Riku** : Okay I’m concerned :/

x~x~x~x~x

Riku felt totally drained as he headed down the corridor to his dorm room. Being with his family was hardly ever pleasant, but sometimes it could be civil. Today hadn’t even been that.

His stomach grumbled in protest at the fact that he hadn’t taken Ansem up on his offer to treat him to dinner. The man may have been a snake, but he did have damn good taste in restaurants. Instead he had left as soon as was socially acceptable, skipping food altogether.

As he approached his room his head perked up in interest. Something smelled good. Had someone ordered food? The mystery was soon solved when he felt warmth wash over him, dragging away some of the anger and tension that had built up and pulling it far away. And sure enough, when he reached his room, he found Sora leaning against his door. He was scrolling through something on his phone with one hand, and in the other was a large bag that was clearly the source of that tasty smell from earlier.

Sora looked up and grinned, pocketing his phone and holding up the bag in question. “I got us a takeaway,” he hummed. “I wasn’t sure what your favourite kinda cuisine is, so I just got Chinese. That’s a pretty safe bet, right?”

Riku’s stomach made a noise of agreement and Sora laughed. “So I was right; you didn’t have time to eat, after all.”

Riku stared at him. What had he done to deserve any of this? He wasn’t worthy of being bathed in Sora’s light. He hadn’t blown anyone away at the meeting today. Nothing he had done warranted this level of thoughtfulness. “You didn’t need to do this,” Riku said, tone disbelieving.

“I know, but I wanted to,” Sora said as if it was just that simple. “You’ve had a shitty day, yeah? So you should at least get to unwind with good food and great company.” He said this last bit with a wink, and Riku melted a little bit.

“Sora, I…” God he felt a little choked up. “Thank you.”

“Aw, c’mon, don’t look at me like that,” Sora said, his cheeks pinking in a bashful manner as he scratched the back of his neck. “You should know I’ve got your back, Riku.”

Such a show of support was really getting to him, and Riku found himself moving to close the distance between them so that he could place a small kiss on Sora’s cheek. The image that Sora had of him was incorrect, it had to be. But even if Sora believed in a version of him that didn’t exist, having someone believe in him with no ulterior motives was something he wanted to selfishly revel in for a bit. “It smells great,” he smiled, “So let’s hurry up and eat.”

“Amen to that!” Sora agreed happily, and Riku quickly unlocked his door and invited Sora in. Sora peered around curiously, and suddenly Riku was self-conscious of quite a few things. His room was hardly interesting; there were no posters on the walls, and his furniture was plain. The only thing it had going for it was that it was neat and clean. Then there was the fact that _Sora_ was in his _room_ , and really that notion shouldn’t have been affecting him in the way that it was.

Sora, apparently oblivious to Riku’s sudden turmoil, headed over to the desk and started taking food out of the bag, setting up a spread for the both of them. “I got a mix of stuff that we could try, seeing as I wasn’t sure what you’d prefer…” The alpha’s lips briefly pulled into a frown, as if upset at himself for _not_ knowing, but it was soon replaced by his sunny smile as he continued with, “But this way we can just have a banquet!”

As container lids were pulled off and the smell of their impending feast filled the air, Riku’s stomach grumbled even harder than before. Sora really had gotten a variety; honestly Riku wondered if he’d just ordered one of everything on the menu. Would they really be able to eat all of this?

“Let me know how much I owe you,” Riku said as he headed over and, going against his usual manners, picked up a prawn toast and popped it immediately into his mouth.

Sora shot him a _look_ , one that very clearly stated that there was absolutely no way in hell that he was accepting any sort of monetary compensation for this. Maybe it was his surprise at the vehemence in Sora’s gaze, or maybe it was the fact that Riku was tired of having to argue his case today, but he couldn’t find it in him to insist.

“Do you have any plates?” Sora asked instead, and Riku nodded as he fetched them. Sora handed him a pair of chopsticks from the bag, and the two of them began to load their plates with food. Riku had gone for an assortment of spring rolls, dim sum, and chow mein, while Sora opted for spare ribs, sweet and sour chicken, and fried rice. And there was still plenty left for seconds _and_ thirds.

Sora looked around and, only spotting the one desk chair, looked over to Riku for guidance. “Uh, where should I sit?”

“The bed is fine,” Riku shrugged, because it was the most sensible option. Really, though, part of him was screaming as Sora actually sat down atop the blankets.

_Sora is on my bed!_

Riku shook his head. As if that in and of itself was novel. They used to do stuff like this all the time as kids. No big deal.

To keep himself occupied for a moment, Riku set his laptop up so that they could watch something while they ate. However he didn’t know if a film would be too long and involved, and he had heard that there were certain… connotations with pulling up _Netflix_. In the end he opted for _YouTube_ and Sora immediately began searching for dog videos, so Riku considered this a success.

The omega was thankful that his surprise guest was presently distracted by a Golden Retriever doing adorable tricks because it meant that he missed Riku awkwardly considering whether he should take the desk chair—which seemed like an odd thing to do seeing as he had literally just suggested the bed—and then trying to ascertain where exactly _he_ should sit on the bed so as not to appear weird. He ultimately ended up sat in a way that had just a touch too much distance between them, but between the food and the dog videos, he didn’t think that Sora had noticed.

Riku gratefully ate up everything on his plate, remembering once more exactly how hungry he was. But at some point during his second helping his thoughts began to wander once his hunger had been mostly sated.

If today had been any indication, then Riku was no closer to gaining the confidence of his family. It didn’t matter how good his grades were or if he had followed his family’s teachings down to the letter, he still wasn’t able to figure out the main thing that mattered. What would he do if he hadn’t found the strength to protect by the time he had graduated? _Would_ he be dropped just like that? Who would take over in his stead? If he was in this position next year, was it… was it worth actually taking Ansem up on his offer?

He gripped his chopsticks hard. He didn’t even want that to be a last resort, but what other choice would he have in that scenario?

It took him a long moment to realise that at some point, Sora’s lips were pressing against his own. His eyes widened when his brain finally processed this fact, a small gasp escaping him, and Sora pulled back with a fond look on his face.

“Man, Riku, you really zoned out there,” he chuckled. “I could practically hear the gears in your head turning.”

“O-Oh, sorry,” Riku mumbled.

“It’s fine,” Sora shrugged. “It was a little unnerving though. Like you weren’t responding at all when I was talking to you.”

…Sora had been talking to him?

“Sorry,” he repeated, placing his plate over to one side and sighing. “I guess I just have a lot on my mind.”

“Yeah. But hey, my little distraction at least got you to hit the pause button. Relax, Riku.”

Easier said than done. The omega’s hands balled into fists at his sides, and Sora frowned in concern, putting aside his own plate (he was on thirds) and looking at Riku seriously.

“Hey,” he said softly, reaching out and gently placing a hand over one of Riku’s. “Do you wanna talk about it? I’ll gladly listen.”

Riku gazed into Sora’s eyes, so open, so full of warmth and understanding. He had already done so much for Riku tonight, but was still willing to sit and listen and help in any way he could. Sora was just so… _good_. It wouldn’t be right to burden him with all of Riku’s worries.

And what if, at the end of it all, Sora stopped looking at him like he was worth something and instead gazed upon him with pity or even disgust? No. Riku would figure this one out on his own. He didn’t want to ruin the image that Sora had of him.

“I’d rather you just distract me again,” Riku replied, unfurling his fist so that he could link his fingers with Sora’s. “Maybe you can do more than hit the pause button this time.”

If his mind was to be full of his complicated family situation or of Sora, Riku knew which one he preferred. He leant in, head tilting slightly to the side, and Sora’s breath hitched.

“Are you sure?” he asked, breath hot against Riku’s lips.

“You don’t want to?” Riku gazed at Sora through half-lidded eyes, his mind already having happily switched back onto the Sora track, the one that had been hyper-aware of the fact that they were alone together, in his room, just the two of them. It was an irresistible prospect, so Riku didn’t want to resist any more.

Riku watched in fascination as Sora’s bright eyes turned a shade or two darker. “Are you kidding?” Sora asked, but he never waited for a reply. Instead he closed the infinitesimal distance between them, lips slotting perfectly against Riku’s own. Sora’s lips were slightly chapped and Riku could faintly taste the remnants of sweet and sour sauce, but this just caused him to lightly run his tongue along the seam of the alpha’s lips. Riku didn’t hesitate to dive in when Sora parted his lips in a soft gasp. He was tired of overthinking everything. And really, right now, what else mattered? Sora was warm and solid; Sora was safety, his sanctuary. He just wanted to stay here for a while.

This wasn’t as desperate as last time. Their tongues moved languidly against each other, Riku’s hands finding their way to Sora’s shoulders and smoothing almost reverently down his chest. He wanted to memorise every dip and curve of muscle with his fingertips. One of Sora’s hands gently cupped the back of Riku’s head, fingers carding through long silver strands and brushing against the sensitive nape of his neck, causing Riku to shiver pleasantly.

Any lingering worries on Riku’s mind were lost to the body heat that Sora radiated, and with them the omega could feel his composure melting away as well. He pushed himself closer, wanting to sink into this heat and that dizzying scent of the sun. Sora’s free hand found its way to Riku’s thigh, gently running up and down in a way that got progressively more maddening as time passed because that attention would have been much preferred elsewhere.

“ _Sora_ ,” Riku breathed out in a frustrated whine, dipping his head down so that he could nip at the skin of Sora’s neck. He flexed his thigh in some sort of feeble attempt to get Sora to just move on, _please_. In response, bronzed fingers dragged teasingly along his inner thigh for the briefest of moments before they returned to tracing random patterns. The omega let out a growl, pushing against Sora’s chest so that they ended up lying against the sheets, facing each other. Riku mouthed at Sora’s neck and Sora let out a breathless chuckle, his hand _finally_ hovering just above where Riku wanted it.

“Can I touch you?” Sora asked in that rich, lustful tone that did funny things to Riku’s insides.

“What do you think?” Riku asked, punctuating his response with a bite to Sora’s neck as he bucked his hips in an effort to make this go faster. But faster seemed to be the last thing on Sora’s mind, and as Riku’s tongue laved over the mark he had just left he felt the hand Sora had in his hair tugging slightly so that he was looking at the alpha.

“I know, but I want to hear you say it.” The slightly crooked quality to the smile playing on Sora’s lips in that moment was devastating, and Riku captured them in an instant.

“Touch me, Sora,” he said in between his kisses, “ _Please_.”

Riku felt Sora shudder underneath his fingertips, and then suddenly that teasing hand was fumbling to undo the button and fly of Riku’s trousers. Riku was more than happy to oblige, moving so as to make it easier and then practically shimmying his hips until the trousers and his underwear were around his knees.

Sora sucked in a breath and his scent spiked—rough ocean waves, the tang of citrus, and something indescribably thick and addicting—looking at Riku in a way that made the omega’s heart thud painfully in his chest. “You’re beautiful.”

The compliment made his cock twitch, and when Sora’s hand finally wrapped around it and _squeezed_ , Riku’s mouth fell open in a moan. His hands gripped Sora’s shoulders as those warm fingers caused him to come undone. Sora’s hand was more calloused than his own, and the way he touched Riku felt completely different from when Riku did this to himself. It felt like there was real thought behind everything that the alpha was doing. He was being so soft and gentle, his hand running up and down his flesh with the utmost care. Like Riku was precious. It felt utterly romantic, and Riku’s toes curled into the sheets.

_“Next time I’ll make sure it’s romantic.”_

God, Riku felt like a mess already just from having Sora’s hand on him, and yet Sora was keeping his promise. Sora was just so _good_.

Riku was panting, and when Sora’s fingers dragged along the sensitive underside of his cock his back arched.

“Does it feel good?” Sora asked, breath hot against the shell of Riku’s ear as his teeth lightly grazed it.

“Yes,” Riku answered honestly, for it was the only answer _to_ give when his body was responding so openly to the alpha’s ministrations. He smoothed his hand down Sora’s torso, over his stomach and seeking out the hem of Sora’s pants. “Let me touch you too.”

Riku had never been happier than in that moment that Sora’s wardrobe consisted almost exclusively of exercise gear, because the elastic of his tracksuit bottoms was a lot more accessible than having to manoeuvre his way around buttons and zips. Honestly, the way he was right now, Riku wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle that. He hooked his fingers underneath the elastic of both the trackies and boxer briefs underneath, gently tugging them down to free Sora from his confines.

Riku hadn’t realised that he had been holding his breath until Sora’s erection was bared to him, and then all the air escaped him at once. Those baggy exercise pants had been concealing something magnificent. Sora’s cock stood proud. It was long and thick and Riku couldn’t tear his eyes away. Certainly in this regard, Sora had gotten bigger than him. And Riku could hardly be mad in the face of what he considered to be sheer perfection. It took a few long, dazed moments for him to realise that he had actually started _drooling_.

There could be absolutely no room for doubt now; Sora was utterly alpha and Riku had to choke back whatever embarrassing sound was threatening to escape him. He felt slick beginning to pool between his legs and he shifted uncomfortably.

“Um, Riku?” Sora’s deep voice cut through his daze, and Riku’s eyes tore themselves away from that perfect dick to see that Sora actually looked a little embarrassed. Riku couldn’t believe it; Sora had absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he said, an admirable tempering of his lust with reason that Riku had sure as hell lost before they had even started this.

The omega shook his head, words tripping over each other in his haste to assure him that, “No, god, Sora, you have _no idea_ how much I want to.” He reached out, hand tentatively wrapping around the heated flesh as much as it could, and he felt Sora twitch in his hand. He pumped once, twice, then moved his hand up so that he could circle his thumb around the tip. The groan of pleasure Sora made went straight to Riku’s own member, and he began to set up a steady pace, working over Sora’s cock with all the care and reverence Sora had shown his own earlier. Sora followed his lead, and soon they were both jerking the other off to the same rhythm, their mouths crashing together and swallowing each other’s noises of pleasure in the heat of their passionate kiss.

Their movements got faster and Sora broke the kiss in order to drag his teeth along the underside of Riku’s jaw. All of Riku’s nerves were alight with Sora, and he instinctually tilted his head back in order to give the alpha better access. As Sora’s teeth sunk into his neck, giving Riku a matching mark to the one he was sporting, Riku moaned loudly and his hips thrust forward into Sora’s hand. He wasn’t going to last much longer, not like this. “Sora,” he moaned brokenly as the alpha tongued his neck, taking the edge off the sting of his bite. He applied more pressure to his grip on Sora and the latter hissed in pleasure, hips bucking forward into Riku’s hand. He could feel pre-cum sliding between his fingers. Sora was close as well.

“Riku, you’re wonderful,” Sora praised him, kissing his way up his neck and seeking his lips once more, capturing the pleased noise the omega made at receiving the compliment.

“T-Together,” Riku managed to say between the fevered kisses before Sora’s tongue was in his mouth, mapping it out. The alpha seemed to have understood, though, and his hand left Riku’s cock for a moment. Even though Riku had sort of been expecting it, he still whined at the loss of that wonderful touch. He let go of Sora, bringing his hips forward, and Sora’s hand was back, holding the two of them together.

The heat was nearly unbearable and both of them broke apart to groan at the slippery friction of their cocks as they rubbed against each other. The building pressure of pleasure was coiling tighter and tighter, every rock of their hips bringing him closer and closer to the edge. Riku’s hands were back on Sora’s shoulders, holding the two of them close together as they moved in tandem.

“S-Sora, I’m gonna—” Riku began.

“Y-Yeah, me too,” Sora gasped.

A couple more thrusts and as if in sync they stiffened, mouths drawn together once more as they messily kissed through their orgasms. They were consumed in white-hot bliss, the release made all the sweeter in the knowledge that they had come together. Their essences mixed, coating Sora’s hand and their abdomens, and making a mess of the sheets.

They kept kissing long after the initial mind-numbingly intense peak of their pleasure, tongues twining together lazily as they came down from the high. Riku’s hold on Sora never slackened, keeping the two of them pressed close, lost in the comforting heat of his alpha. He didn’t want this moment to end.

For long minutes they stayed intertwined, hands tenderly roaming each other’s bodies. Sora was the one to break it, nuzzling affectionately against Riku’s neck as he murmured, “That was amazing.”

Riku smiled, mind filled with a happy sort of fuzziness. “It was.”

Sora pecked his cheek. “I’ll go get something to clean us up.”

“No!” Riku said before he could stop the outburst. Sora looked at him curiously, and Riku’s cheeks reddened as he pushed his face against Sora’s chest. “I mean… stay here, just for a bit longer?” He didn’t want this to end. Didn’t want Sora to take the warmth away and leave him alone, when his thoughts wouldn’t be stuck in such a happy place.

Sora placed a reassuring hand on his back. “Hey,” he said soothingly, “I’ll be right back. I wasn’t planning on leaving.”

Riku peered up at him. “You weren’t?”

Sora laughed. “Why? Were you gonna kick me out?”

“As if I would,” Riku mumbled.

“Good,” Sora pressed a kiss to his forehead, “Cuz it seems like I’m the type to cuddle a whole lot after stuff like this.”

Riku huffed out a small laugh, his initial panic leaving him just as quickly as it had come. “It seems that I am, as well.”

Sora grinned, rolling off of the bed to go in search of something that would make them less sticky. Before long they were both cleaned up and Riku had leant Sora a pair of pyjama bottoms to sleep in. Sora put his arm around Riku’s waist, and Riku tangled their legs together. Riku finally realised just how tired he really was, and as his heavy eyelids fell shut he smiled at the light kisses that Sora peppered across his face, wishing him a good night.

That night, cuddled up next to Sora, Riku slept better than he had done in a long while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Timpini: riku's big ol thirst i was like _fans myself_
> 
> Me: Look it wasn't intentional okay. That boy has a mind of his own...
> 
> As always, dear reader, thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my work. I can't describe how much it means to me. I look forward to meeting you again in the next chapter ^_^
> 
> May your lives be blessed with bountiful SoRiku goodness~


	5. Of Tricks And Treats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Riku attempts to deal with his burgeoning sexuality, Halloween shenanigans ensue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the delay to this chapter. As you can see, it turned into an absolute behemoth. Plus I was also writing [ a one-shot for the Easter Exchange](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18537682%E2%80%9D%20rel=), so feel free to check that out if you are so inclined. 
> 
> At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I continue to be stunned at the level of support this fic has garnered. Over 300 kudos and such lovely comments... it's a lot to take in, and I truly appreciate each and every one of you who take the time to read my work.
> 
> A huge thank you to my wonderful flatmate [ ICantBelieveItsNotCanon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ICantBelieveItsNotCanon%E2%80%9D%20rel=) for beta reading this novel-length chapter. I would also like to dedicate this chapter to [ Timpini](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Timpini/pseuds/Timpini) who deserves all the happiness in the world. 
> 
> **NOTE:** This chapter has our boys at a house party. There is alcohol. As I am British, legal drinking age is 18, and they say to write what you know and so that's also the legal age in this fic. So yeah, I'm not tagging this as 'underage drinking' but thought it fair to give you the heads up in case it concerns you.
> 
> Now without further ado, let's have some Halloween in April!!

Riku smoothed his hands over the billowing fabric of his shirt for the umpteenth time that day, carefully retying the navy sash around his waist once more. He stepped back, buzzing with excitement as he looked over his ensemble.

They were going to go as pirates.

Riku had been wearing his pirate bandana all day, and he was pretty sure Sora would be wearing his elaborate captain’s hat as well. It was a touch too big for his head and kept falling down, with an ornate, floppy red feather sticking out of it. Riku had considered fighting Sora for the title of captain, but Sora had started whining the second he had even lightly suggested it and really, Riku was just thrilled to have a chance to go out tonight.

Besides, Sora looked so happy in his oversized hat. He didn’t really fancy being the one to rob that smile away. After all, this was a special occasion: this was the first time he was going to go trick-or-treating! In the past his parents had said it was a waste of time, and Kanga never had the inclination to take him, no matter how many times he had pulled on her skirts and begged.

But then this year Sora had invited Riku to go trick-or-treating, and Sora’s mother said she would be happy to take him, and then shockingly Riku’s parents had said they were okay with this arrangement. And so finally, _finally_ , Riku would get to see what all the fuss was about. He would dress up all cool and get loads of sweets and then maybe he could eat them with Sora while they watched something spooky later that night.

Ahh, he couldn’t wait!

“My, my, that’s certainly a big smile you’ve got there,” came the light, airy voice of his mother. Riku turned around to beam even more brightly at her. She laughed, rushing forward to scoop Riku up into her arms. “What a fearsome pirate you make!”

Riku giggled, his arms wrapping around his mother’s neck. Her emerald eyes crinkled under the force of her own smile, long platinum blonde hair falling wildly about her shoulders as she spun the two of them around. Kagome Getsumei was a woman often described as ‘ethereal’, a word that Riku had tried to look-up in the dictionary a couple of times but still didn’t _quite_ understand. She was incredibly beautiful though, and the first time Sora came over to his house he had very seriously asked Kagome if she was a fairy queen. She had laughed, and since then always had a soft spot for the bouncy brunette boy that her son was so fond of.

“Did you get the pumpkins?” Riku asked excitedly once his feet were back on the ground.

“Kanga has put them in the kitchen. Do you want to go and get Sora?”

“Yeah!”

They had the whole day planned: pumpkin carving at his house, then they would take them over to Sora’s place (showing their scary pumpkins to anyone who would give them the time of day), get changed into their costumes at Sora’s before going out later that evening to go and gather all the sweets the island residents had to offer.

“Get changed first though,” his mother said, ruffling his hair. “We don’t want you getting your nice outfit all dirty with pumpkin bits.”

Riku changed into his casual clothes in a flash, mind coming up with all sorts of weird and wonderful designs that he could carve into his pumpkin. Before long he was heading out of the front door, calling goodbye to his mum and Kanga as he went.

Between his and Sora’s house was a large palm tree with leaves that fanned out and cast grand shadows beneath it. When they weren’t planning on visiting their little island they often chose this palm tree as their meeting point. Riku ran along the clay path, occasionally waving to some of the residents who were out gardening or on an afternoon stroll.

Sora wasn’t at the tree when he arrived, but he was often late. Riku simply leant against the thick tree trunk, taking the time to catch his breath after practically sprinting to get there. About three minutes later a large, floppy feather came into view, and sure enough Sora was ambling along the path, hat once more covering most of his face. Sora’s face was angled downwards, presumably tracking his footsteps seeing as his vision had been subsumed by his pirate hat.

Riku chuckled at the sight and pushed off of the trunk. “Took you long enough, slowpoke,” he teased.

Sora came to a stop in front of him, but he made no move to fix his hat. “Sorry I’m late,” Sora said in a voice that had all the qualities of being bright if a little sheepish, but somehow seemed off. “Were you waiting long?”

Riku frowned. Sora was hunched over and acting weird. “Not too long…”

“G-Good! Then let’s go.” Somehow the words seemed forced, and as Sora attempted to rush past him, Riku grabbed hold of the smaller boy’s wrist in order to stop him.

“Wait a sec,” he said, walking around so that he was facing Sora. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re acting weird.”

Sora let out a strained laugh, pulling his hand away. “No I’m not, silly. C’mon, Riku, I wanna carve pumpkins!”

“How will you carve it with that hat covering your face?” Riku asked, moving to tug at said hat but Sora’s hands quickly flew up to keep it firmly on his head and covering most of his face. “What the—?” Riku blinked. “Sora, take off the hat.”

“No,” Sora said petulantly.

The silver haired boy felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. “Sora…” he said, tone a mixture of firm and worried.

Sora sneezed in response.

“Give me that hat!” he said, ignoring Sora’s protests and making another grab for it. After a few seconds of tugging Riku won and he pulled the hat up and away from Sora’s head.

“Hey, no fair,” Sora whined, big blue eyes looking utterly betrayed. Riku stared at them, his own eyes widening as he noticed that they were red rimmed and had shadows under them. Sora’s face also seemed paler than usual—an odd look for a boy whose skin was usually sun-kissed—and yet was flushed at the same time.

“You’re sick,” Riku said slowly as he noticed more and more: Sora’s runny nose, the slightly raspy quality to his voice, the fact that his breathing seemed heavier than normal.

“Am not!” Sora argued, and then promptly collapsed into a coughing fit.

Riku quickly put his arm around Sora, rubbing his back and biting his lip in concern. He placed his hand on Sora’s forehead and it was obvious that Sora was far too hot. “You’re burning up,” he said seriously, “What were you thinking, Sora? You should be in bed!”

Sora pouted and tried to shake him off, but Riku held firm. When it became obvious that the older boy wasn’t going to let this go, Sora deflated, a sad sigh escaping his lips. “But this is our first Halloween…” he mumbled, wiping at his eyes. Riku wasn’t sure if they were watery because Sora was sick or because he was just that upset. “And I promised you, Riku. That we’d go trick-or-treating together.”

Riku let out a breath, expression melting into one of unadulterated fondness. So Sora hadn’t wanted to let him down, that’s why he was pushing himself. Sure, he was a bit upset that he wouldn’t get a chance to try trick-or-treating, but it paled in comparison to how much he just wanted Sora to be safe.

“You think I’d be happy forcing you to come with me when you look like you’re gonna collapse?” he asked, slightly teasing.

“You wouldn’t be forcing me,” Sora insisted.

“Yeah, I know. But you’re forcing yourself because of me, right?” He grabbed Sora’s hand and gently tugged on it, leading the two of them in the direction Sora had come from. “Thank you, Sora. But you need to rest, so let’s get you home.”

As it turned out, Sora had sneaked out of the house in order to meet him, despite his parents telling him that he needed to rest. As Riku trudged back to his own house, wondering what on earth he was supposed to do with his pirate outfit now, but mainly worried about Sora, he was struck with an idea.

“Ah, Young Master Riku,” Kanga greeted him as he stepped into the kitchen, determinedly heading over to the wall where the aprons hung. Usually he would have told his nanny to cut the formalities, but he had something more important to do. “Is Sora not with you?” she asked.

“He’s sick,” Riku replied, eyeing the counter upon which were the pumpkins that he was meant to be carving with Sora right about now.

“Oh dear,” the beta frowned, “I do hope it is nothing too serious.” She hesitated, watching Riku somewhat warily. “Does this mean you shan’t be going trick-or-treating tonight?”

Riku looked up at her and frowned lightly. So she wouldn’t take him this year either? But he knew that. And it’s not like he wanted to go without Sora anyway. “Yeah,” he confirmed, looking around for something he could stand on so that he could actually reach the counter properly.

“Young Master, what are you doing?”

“Well, I figured…” Riku bit his lip before shaking his head. He couldn’t have doubts now! This was definitely a good idea. “Why waste the pumpkins? If Sora is ill, couldn’t we make pumpkin soup? It’s kinda spooky, so it’s still Halloween-y, and might make him feel better.”

Kanga looked a little stunned for a moment before she smiled. “You really care about him, don’t you?”

“Well he’s my best friend,” Riku said as if it was obvious. “Um, but, I don’t know how to make soup… so could you tell me how?”

“I see. Well then let me find you something to stand on, and I shall help you.”

Kanga was actually quite a good teacher when it came to cooking. While she was chopping the pumpkins into chunks, Riku was tasked with measuring out chicken stock and cream. And when it was all in the pot, Riku religiously stood guard, stirring dutifully and smiling when it actually started to look more and more like soup.

“You’re a natural,” Kanga complimented him, nodding when she looked into the pot. “You’ve done a fine job, Young Master.”

She helped him ladle most of it into a Tupperware and wrapped it carefully, before putting aside the rest for Riku to have later. “Will you be fine carrying this to Sora’s house?” she asked, and Riku nodded, hand clutching the bag they had put the Tupperware into.

And so Riku found himself heading back to Sora’s place once again, along the clay path, past the big palm tree, and up along the coastline.

It was Sora’s mother who opened the door, and she smiled when she saw Riku standing on her porch.

“I brought soup,” he said by way of explanation before she could say anything, holding the bag out to her like an offering. “It’s, um, it’s pumpkin, for Halloween. I thought that maybe Sora would, uh, well he’s ill, so…” He shuffled his feet. “Kanga just made too much, so I thought I should bring it over.” He didn’t really know why he lied, but suddenly it seemed sort of embarrassing to admit that he had spent his afternoon making soup for Sora because he was overly worried about what was probably just a cold.

The omega regarded him for a moment before chuckling. “Did she now?” she asked, raising an eyebrow and gently taking the bag from Riku. He felt her pat his head and he looked up. “Honestly, you have to bring my silly son back here and now this. Riku, thank you for always looking out for Sora.”

“You don’t need to thank me for something like that,” he mumbled, his cheeks feeling warmer.

“Is that Riku at the door?” came the booming voice of Sora’s father, and not even a few seconds later the stocky alpha was at the door, mouth stretching into a wide grin when she set eyes on Riku. “Oh thank god. Sora’s been fussing ever since you dragged him back here,” she laughed, throwing her unruly braid over her shoulder. “Go tell my idiot son to go and lie in bed, will you? He actually seems to listen to you.”

“Is that Riku at the door?” came Sora’s voice, significantly more raspy and pathetic than earlier. Riku raised an eyebrow. Sora’s family were always a _lot_ , but when Sora was nudging past his parents to join the crowd at the door it did seem a bit much. “Riku!” Sora cried, moving in to squeeze him tightly. “I’m sorry I ruined Halloween!”

“Hey, Sora,” Riku floundered a little with Sora’s parents as their impromptu audience, who seemed to be deriving amusement from this situation. He tried to pry Sora off of him but this proved to be futile, and so he resorted to awkwardly patting Sora’s shoulder. “You didn’t ruin Halloween, you dolt. You can’t help being sick.”

“But I really wanted to go trick-or-treating with you,” the brunette sniffled, “And you were really looking forward to it as well.”

Riku rested his chin atop Sora’s fluffy hair. “Eh, we can always go trick-or-treating next year,” he reasoned, and Sora seemed to relax a little upon remembering that Halloween was, in fact, an annual event.

“I guess…”

“So how about this year we take it easy, okay? I, ah, brought you some soup that Kanga made”—did Sora’s mother just deliberately cough at that?—“S-So you can have that if you’re hungry. And then if you go lie in bed, we can watch something spooky.”

“I wanna watch Disney stuff,” Sora mumbled.

Riku chuckled. “Disney stuff isn’t scary.”

“ _The_ _Black Cauldron_ is!” Sora insisted around a sneeze.

“I’ve not seen that one.”

Sora gasped and began tugging Riku inside the house. “Then let’s go!”

As he was yanked up the stairs, Riku could distinctly hear Sora’s father laughing and saying, “See? Listens to him every time! That Getsumei kid is a damn miracle worker.”

Riku learnt that day that when Disney put their minds to it, they could be damn scary. As a sick Sora clung to him whenever the horrifying Horned King graced the screen, Riku found himself wondering how his beloved Mickey Mouse could possibly fall under the same brand as that undead nightmare. Still, there were worse ways he could be spending his time than cuddling with Sora. And Sora even complimented ‘Kanga’s’ soup later on, which definitely didn’t make Riku feel all warm inside.

A couple of days later saw Riku waking up with a fever and stuffed up nose. There were no doubts as to where this had come from, but Riku still maintained that it was totally worth it, and that he didn’t need to go trick-or-treating after all.

That was definitely his favourite Halloween of all time.

x~x~x~x~x

When Riku collapsed unceremoniously onto the chair that Kairi had saved for him in the canteen that day, he wasn’t necessarily looking for _sympathy_. Still, Kairi could have at least _pretended_ to be concerned for his wellbeing as opposed to bursting out laughing as his head heavily hit the table, every inch of him feeling worn and weary.

“Sleep well?” she snorted, and Riku’s answering groan caused her to let out a sound reminiscent of a cackle.

“I hate this,” he grumbled, turning his head so he could gaze up at Kairi. “What’s happening to me?”

“Aww, Riri, don’t look so sad,” she giggled, ruffling his hair. Riku half-heartedly swatted her away. “I mean sure, it’s happening a few years late, but you’re finally having your sexual awakening! I say we should celebrate.”

“Could you stop looking at me like that?” Riku groused.

“Come on, Riri, lighten up! So you had a wet dream last night—” she completely ignored Riku’s horrified gasp at uttering such a thing in the _canteen_ , of all places— “Happens to all of us. Although dang, how much detergent did you use? You smell like you took a bath in a vat of _Persil_.”

“I had to take drastic action,” Riku said gravely, as if he were discussing some sort of war order he had needed to execute and was being forced to relive the horrors of it.

Having Sora’s scent lingering on his sheets after their ‘impromptu sleepover’ was actually really comforting… up until the point where it wasn’t. Honestly Riku considered himself too old to be rutting against his pillow at three in the morning, face flushed and mind stuck helplessly on Sora. Which was why, at four in the morning, he had ripped away all of his bedding and marched all the way to the on-site coin washers. He had savagely thrown everything inside before pouring half a bottle of detergent in, determined to blast away the (wonderful, heady, _addicting_ ) offensive scent. As soon as the cycle was done, he dumped the other half of the bottle in and set it going once more for good measure.

Needless to say, it hadn’t been a very restful night.

“I thought the one benefit to spending my teenage years perpetually angry at everything was that I at least got to avoid _this_ ,” he groaned. Ever since he had presented as an omega, Riku had gone through life ignoring his own biological realities. But now they were rearing up in a way that simply couldn’t be refused any longer, some base part of him that had lain dormant up until now having been awakened by his alpha. By Sora.

And part of him wanted to be mad at this development, but it was hard for Riku to get angry at Sora when he was so stupidly enamoured with him.

“But it’s more interesting this way, isn’t it?” Kairi asked, a wide smile on her lips. “My little Riku is growing up! I’m so proud!”

The omega rolled his eyes at her antics, catching sight of the other chair that Kairi had been guarding. He raised an eyebrow. “Is Olette joining us?”

“Yes. She should be here any minute, but she stayed behind a little after the lecture to ask the professor something.”

“That so?” he asked, moving to sit upright in his chair and shooting the alpha a sly look. “You had another date last night, right? How’d that go?” He grinned when Kairi’s cheeks immediately turned pink and she began fiddling with a strand of her hair.

“Ah, well, it went… it went really well,” she admitted, eyes sparkling.

Riku started laughing. “Ha, looks like my little Kairi is growing up as well.”

She laughed, positively radiating happiness. “Isn’t it amazing, Riri? Both of our love lives taking off at the same time like this?” Her eyes widened and she gasped. “Oh my gosh, we should totally have a double date!”

“Oh my gosh,” Riku gasped in response, mimicking her tone, “We totally should not.”

“Aw, why not?” she pouted, “It’d be fun.”

“We clearly have very different definitions of the word ‘fun’.”

“Don’t be such a stick in the mud. I’ve always thought a double date was a cute idea, and I don’t appreciate you trying to take away this incredibly meaningful experience from me.”

Riku snorted. “Don’t make me complicit in your amorous schemes. I’m not a romantic like you.” He jumped a little bit at the loud bark of laughter that this elicited from the alpha. “What’s so funny?” he asked, eyebrows furrowed.

“Not a romantic? _Please_.” Kairi threw her head back dramatically, hand clutching her heart. “Oh I cannot _live_ without the scent of the sun!” she cried, “Oh I cannot bear to be parted from my darling alpha. Sora, oh apple of my eye, oh fruit of my loins, I beg of you to scent me _in the library_ ”—she still wouldn’t drop that point—“so that you may cover the smell of my own burning desperation for you!”

“I-I never said any of that!” Riku spluttered indignantly, “And I don’t smell _desperate_.” Kairi just started laughing again and Riku tried to surreptitiously sniff his wrist as if he’d be able to actually determine his own scent. He didn’t smell desperate… right? What did desperation even _smell_ like?

He was so preoccupied in this endeavour that he very nearly fell out of his seat altogether when he heard Sora’s voice rise above the din of the cafeteria, calling out a sunny, “Riku!”

“Speak of the devil,” Kairi murmured, and Riku was hyper-aware of the fact that she was eyeing him up, lips quirking when she caught the way he instantly perked up and scooted forward on his chair as if being just that tiny bit closer to Sora was all he wanted.

“Shut up,” he muttered before she could make some sort of clever comment, and she made a show of pressing her index finger to her lips, shooting him a small wink as Sora bounded over to their table.

“I was just about to message you,” Sora said as he came to a stop before them, only belatedly noticing Kairi seeing as his eyes had initially been trained on Riku. “Oh, hi there, Kairi.” His tone was pleasant enough. Sora hadn’t really had a lot of time to interact with Kairi, but he had clearly been making an effort. Riku wasn’t sure if it was because Sora felt a little bad about how he had acted towards her outside of the library, or if Tidus had guilted him into it. A quick glance behind Sora showed that both Wakka and Tidus were hanging back, waiting for their friend to re-join them.

“Hello,” Kairi nodded. As much as she was thrilled for Riku, she was still a touch wary about the new alpha in his life. Yet another reason a double date would have been useful: she could actually get to know Sora for herself.

Riku looked between the two of them, appreciating that they both seemed to be trying. He wondered if there was any way the two of them could become friends.

“So,” Sora continued, scratching the back of his neck, “I was wondering if you’d had any more thoughts about Saturday?”

Riku cocked his head to the side. “Saturday?”

“The Halloween party I told you about. The volleyball captain is throwing it.”

“But isn’t Halloween on Tuesday?” Riku asked.

“Well yeah, but you can’t have a crazy cool Halloween party on a weeknight,” Sora laughed. “So, how about it?”

Riku hesitated. “I don’t know… parties aren’t really my thing.”

“I promise it’ll be fun,” Sora said before turning to Kairi. “You are obviously welcome to come too.”

Kairi instantly perked up. “Really?”

 _‘Oh no,’_ Riku thought.

“Yeah. The captain said it was an open invitation and we could bring whoever we want.”

“Can I bring a date?” she asked, already getting far too excited about this.

“Yup, you sure can.”

“And last question: can we wear costumes?”

Sora grinned at her, leaning in closer. “Costumes are _required_ ~”

Kairi cheered and threw her hands up in the air. “Heck _yes_! Riri, we’re going to a party~!”

Riku groaned, rubbing at his temples. “Why ‘we’? He already said you can take Olette; you don’t need me there.”

“You need to live a little,” she insisted, placing a hand on his shoulder and shaking him. “You need this.” She turned to look up at Sora. “Did you know he’s never _once_ dressed up for Halloween? He hasn’t even been trick-or-treating!”

Sora’s eyes widened and he looked at Riku as if he had just heard some tragic backstory. “That’s right,” he murmured, eyebrows furrowing, “I moved away before we could…” This new information only seemed to strengthen the alpha’s resolve, and he puffed up his chest as he said, “Well then now you _have_ to come to the party.”

Riku was trying to fight a war on two fronts, Kairi on one side and Sora on the other. Both of them were looking at him so expectantly, almost pleading with him, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that they weren’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer. Really, they had to pick _this_ as the thing they wanted to bond over.

Riku had one last hope, and he saw her approaching their table looking mildly curious as to what was going on. Olette. The brunette omega locked eyes with Riku for the briefest of moments, and in that moment he tried to communicate the situation, but his efforts were in vain.

“Olette,” Kairi hummed, “Do you want to go to a Halloween party this Saturday? Costumes are required.”

And even though she had no idea whose party it was or why there was another alpha here who seemed to have a vested interest in the group going, that didn’t stop her from smiling beatifically as she said, “Oh, that sounds like fun!”

Damn it. Surrounded as he was, Riku had no choice but to surrender.

Kairi let out a whoop of excitement, throwing her arms around Riku. “We’re going to a party!”

“Great,” Sora grinned, “I’ll see you all there.”

He had to quickly run off after that, saying he had plans with Tidus and Wakka, and as a result he missed the utterly _predatory_ glance Kairi shot Riku as she said, “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to find you the _perfect_ Halloween outfit.”

Despite her assurances, or perhaps because of them, Riku felt extremely worried.

x~x~x~x~x

“No.”

“But Riri—”

“ _No_.”

Kairi pouted, crossing her arms petulantly across her chest. Riku honestly couldn’t figure out how _she_ was the one who felt hard done by in this scenario.

He was clued in to how painful the afternoon was going to be when Kairi strode into his room looking for all the world as if she owned the place, and looked him dead in the eyes as she pitched her Halloween costume idea. “Okay, Riri, hear me out: you and me, matching outfits, playboy bunnies. Except while you have the bunny ears, I’ll wear mouse ears.”

Honestly the whole concept didn’t make sense to begin with—what sort of unholy bunny had _mouse_ ears?—and it made even less sense that she thought there was even a remote chance that Riku would go for it. When she had asked if the reason he was so against the idea was because _he_ wanted to be the one wearing the mouse ears, it was obvious that she was fundamentally missing the point.

(“But you love Mickey Mouse!”

“What sort of love do you think I have for him?! I’m not wearing Mickey ears in combination with a playboy bunny suit you absolute maniac!”)

The latest idea he had vetoed was Kairi’s suggestion of a ‘slutty angel’, on the basis that ‘slutty’ was the polar opposite of what angels were and Riku was naturally committed to capturing a sense of realism in his costume choice.

“Why can’t I just wear my regular clothes?” he asked, ignoring Kairi’s scandalised look at the suggestion. “What? That just means I’m going as the scariest thing of all: a university student, drowning in a sea of assignments and racking up crippling student debt. The scariest things are the true things, after all.”

The alpha raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him. “That student debt thing doesn’t apply you, what with your absolutely loaded family bankrolling your way through uni. Now can we please get back to serious suggestions?”

“What part of your suggestions thus far have been serious?” he asked but was, predictably, ignored.

“How about a slutty demon?” Kairi asked, eyes lighting up as she clapped her hands and said, “With thigh high stiletto boots!”

“Oh yeah, because the _one_ thing I need more of is height,” the omega deadpanned.

“What about a slutty—”

“Can we _please_ get away from the slutty idea?!”

“...no. No we cannot.”

“ _Why_ not?” Riku ground out, growing increasingly more frustrated.

“Well first of all, it’s not slutty on Halloween,” Kairi explained, much to Riku’s chagrin. What sort of nonsense defence was that supposed to be? “And secondly,” and this is where Kairi’s lips quirked up into a sly little smirk, “ _Sora_ is going to be at this party.”

Riku blinked at her, and wondered if he should actually be concerned for his best friend’s mental wellbeing. Obviously Sora was going to be there; he was the one that invited them in the first place. “Yeah, so?”

Kairi sighed in frustration. “ _So_ , don’t you want to make sure his eyes are on you? The instant you step through that door he can’t focus on anyone or anything else because there you are, dressed up so sexily that he can’t stand it. And you _know_ that he can’t, and you go out of your way to tease him with your tight outfit and exposed skin that he’s dying to mark all over, a-and then he’s pushing you up against a wall and I’m kissing her so hard and she’s gasping and—”

Riku had been dazedly following along with this imaginary scenario right up until Kairi’s telling slip-up, at which point he smirked at her and she gasped, quickly covering her mouth as she turned bright red. “Well, if nothing else, I think it’s pretty clear what _you_ want,” he said, voice low and teasing. Still, he was pretty surprised. He never thought he’d ever hear Kairi saying something like that. “Have you always been such a…” he struggled to find the right word before giving up and settling with, “Such an _alpha_?”

Kairi buried her burning face in her hands, feeling utterly mortified. “I-I can’t help it! I feel so many things whenever I think about her and I just…” She looked up at Riku, her lips quirking upwards slightly in a way that conveyed so many different emotions all at once, her eyes surprisingly understanding. “You’re not the only one trying to negotiate these baser urges.”

Riku stared at her, and in that moment he felt a deep sense of solidarity with Kairi. Suddenly his early-morning laundry run had a bit more perspective to it. It didn’t make it any less embarrassing or intimidating, but it was nevertheless comforting to know that he wasn’t the only one struggling with the more sexual aspects of himself. Aspects that had barely even begun to be explored.

“I’m sure we’ll figure it out soon enough,” he murmured.

“I hope so,” Kairi replied, her voice just as quiet. “Really, more than anything, I just want to make Olette happy.”

Riku felt his lips pulling up into a small smile and he raised his right hand, placing it over his heart. “Yeah,” he exhaled, “I get it.” After all, he felt the same way about Sora.

Kairi shook her head, cheeks still tinted pink. “A-Anyway, getting back to the matter at hand,” she said, “Let me make you look like a snack.”

“A… what?”

“A snack,” Kairi repeated, and the omega was no more clear on what exactly that meant.

“I think the costume shop was selling hot dog costumes last time I was there?” he ventured a guess, but Kairi’s answering groan made him think that perhaps this wasn’t the sort of ‘snack’ Kairi was after. Was she more of a hamburger girl? Or maybe she meant something like a giant pumpkin costume to tie in with it being Halloween?

“Oh my _god_ , Riri,” she said, her exasperation bleeding into a laugh, “You’re hopeless. We both are.”

And that, at least, was something he could agree with.

x~x~x~x~x

Unsurprisingly, Riku and Kairi hadn’t been able to see eye-to-eye on what was and was not appropriate for a Halloween party. Kairi had accused Riku of ‘not understanding her vision’, to which Riku had shortly replied that he didn’t see why her vision was so desperate to get him in fishnet tights and a maid outfit.

What had been a surprise, however, was an olive branch being extended to him by Olette of all people. Riku had nothing against the other omega, and in fact she had been nothing but sweet on the few occasions they had interacted, but he certainly hadn’t been expecting her to invite him out for a day of costume shopping.

Truth be told, part of him was rather nervous about it. He had never really hung out with other omegas before, and therefore he was unsure of whether there was a certain etiquette involved.

Still, Olette had been punctual to their agreed meet-up point at central square and had seemed more than happy to do the majority of the talking as they headed towards the costume shop.

“But really, this is pretty crazy,” Olette was saying, arms swinging freely at her side, “I never thought that _I_ would be going shopping with a _Getsumei_.”

Riku raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t necessarily a complete surprise that she knew of his family, but her almost awed tone wasn’t something he had expected. “Is it really that odd?” he asked.

The brunette omega hummed, smiling up at Riku. “It’s just that the Getsumei Group’s pharmaceutical laboratories are cutting edge, and I get to walk with someone who’s at the forefront of something like that.” She chuckled sheepishly, “So I guess I’m a little star struck and a little envious.”

Riku tried to remember what degree Kairi said Olette was studying. He knew it was a STEM subject, which was already a pretty unusual discipline for an omega to choose, but the specifics eluded him. But for her to be so interested in the research and development aspect of their pharmaceutical business… “What was your degree again?”

“Bioscience,” Olette replied, which Riku immediately found impressive, and the modesty with which she had said it made it even more so. “Being able to work in a lab and create new things, things that can help people, that’s such a dream job. And the Getsumei’s have produced some truly ground-breaking things over the years, so I kind of feel like I’m walking with a celebrity.”

“I’m not that special,” Riku replied, the sentence simultaneously managing to be a modest response and a deeply held belief. “It’s not like I was the one to make that difference.”

“But you will be,” Olette said as if there wasn’t any room for doubt, and Riku honestly felt a little shocked. “You’re, like, the next generation! So it’s exciting to think of what the future holds with someone like you leading the way.”

What had Kairi been telling her? Or, if Olette was someone who was interested in his family to begin with, were these her own opinions? But what evidence was she using for the basis of her belief that he would be a good leader?

“Plus it’s about time,” she grinned, playfully nudging Riku, “Do it for us omegas!”

And _that_ was something he hadn’t been expecting, either. At some point Riku had lost all perspective on why he was going through all of this, or who it was all for. Himself? His mother? His father? His family? Knowing the path on which he walked but not knowing why he was walking it any more… There was an omnipresent unpleasantness lingering in the background, one that would surely intensify the closer time got to running out. He had a lot of things to find and to figure out before that happened.

A gust of wind picked up, red and gold leaves swirling around their feet as they walked. Riku pulled his jacket tighter around his body to try and brace against the chill, and Olette looked at his outfit curiously.

“You don’t wear omega clothes?” she asked, although it could have also doubled as a statement.

“Not really,” Riku shrugged, preferring the beta section of clothes shops. Beta clothes were always the most extensive and varied, and as a result came in alpha and omega sizing as well. The homogenisation of fashion in this manner was a welcome relief to someone like Riku, who balked at the idea of being forced into something like a girdle, as would have been the case had he been born even fifty years earlier.

He had tried browsing the omega section of a clothing store precisely once before, a couple of years ago. At the time he had taken a terribly wrong turn and ended up surrounded on all sides by scanty lingerie. The level of panic with which he sprinted out of the shop was up for debate (Riku claimed that it was ‘mild’, while outside commentators would have called it ‘blind’), but he had never felt the inclination to check out the omega section since then.

“But aren’t you cold?” Olette asked.

“A little,” Riku replied. She shot him an odd look in response, but didn’t pursue the line of questioning. Riku didn’t elaborate.

Before long they had reached the costume shop and Olette looked around excitedly. “Did you have any ideas in mind for what you want to go as?”

Riku considered this for a moment. “If it’s something Kairi wouldn’t approve of, then it’s probably something I’d like.”

Olette giggled. “She told me that you two couldn’t reach an agreement.” Riku raised an eyebrow, wondering how much detail she had gone into on what exactly the disagreements had been about. “Why don't we just browse and see what we find?”

“Right,” Riku nodded, already heading off down one of the aisles before he paused. “Ah, is there something you had in mind for yourself? What should I look for?”

“Something cute!” Olette smiled, and he didn’t even bother pointing out that ‘cute’ seemed rather antithetical to the spirit of Halloween. Olette wanted cute and Kairi wanted slutty… maybe Riku was the one who had misunderstood the concept of Halloween as a scary affair.

The omegas split up, searching opposite sides of the store and methodically working their way into the centre. Riku very quickly noticed a theme on the first aisle he explored: sexy nurse, sexy scientist, sexy maid. He scoffed at the sign that proclaimed this to be the omega section of the store. He came to the conclusion that he would look ridiculous in all of the above and very swiftly moved on.

The next rack of costumes that he rifled through claimed to be for betas, and he found a werewolf onesie and a giant bumblebee getup among the garments that would make him look just as ridiculous as the omega ones but for different reasons. At least it seemed that betas were allowed to showcase a sense of humour on Halloween.

Ten minutes in and he had managed to find a witch outfit that he thought Olette might like, given her brief, but something for himself still eluded him. The designated alpha outfits were hardly much better than the omega ones: police officers and doctors and fire fighters. Most of them were professions that suggested strength and authority and the ability to protect; all of them were carefully designed to leave barely anything to the imagination. When he actually found a peacock outfit among them, Riku wondered if it was meant to be ironic.

He was about to give up when he came across a pirate outfit, with the added benefit that it didn’t have the word ‘sexy’ preceding it.

“Any luck?” he heard Olette calling from somewhere to his left.

“I think so,” he called back, and a moment later Olette’s head popped through the current rack of costumes he had been browsing through. She looked curiously at what Riku had in his hands and let out a delighted sound as she saw the witch outfit.

“Shall we go try them on? I found changing rooms in the back.”

“Sure.”

In-keeping with the shop’s generally dishevelled mishmash aesthetic, where one really had to get into the racks and have a good search in order to strike gold, the changing rooms were rather haphazard affairs. There were only two of them, and the mirrors in both were of a different make and looked as though they had been purchased at a car boot sale, but they were both perfectly serviceable.

Riku gazed at his reflection as he tied the blue sash tight around his waist, the loose fabric of the off-white blouse pooling over his torso. He turned this way and that, pleased that the brown elasticated leggings stretched comfortably over his legs and fit pretty well. The only thing he needed to address were his bare feet, but surely there would be some pirate-esque boots somewhere in here, right? Oh and maybe a bandana?

Riku paused for a moment when he realised that he was actually getting pretty into this. Maybe there _was_ something to the whole ‘getting dressed up and going to a party’ thing after all.

“How is it?” Olette asked from outside his changing room, and Riku pulled back the curtain to let her see.

The brunette omega looked spookily cute in the witch costume, the top made of lace in the fashion of a spider web that hugged her frame nicely, while the torn black and orange skirts flared out in a manner reminiscent of a ballerina’s tutu. She had procured for herself a pointy hat and shot Riku a shy smile.

“You look good,” he complimented her before she could say anything, and Olette twirled around for him.

“You did well finding this,” she smiled. “You don’t think it’s too short? I was thinking of pairing it with fishnet tights, but maybe that would be too much…”

Riku looked her up and down before giving his honest verdict: “Kairi will love it.”

Olette lit up at that. “You think so?”

For a brief moment, Riku was torn between being a good wingman for his best friend, or protecting Olette’s safety. But if Olette was truly as thrilled with the outfit as she seemed, he supposed that the both of them would get what they wanted. “I know so.”

Olette hummed happily and gazed at the taller omega’s ensemble. “You look like you could actually be a pirate.”

“Thanks.”

“But… I think there should be a little _something_.”

Riku wasn’t sure he liked the way she said ‘something’. And sure enough, when Olette saw his lack of shoes and clapped her hands, enthusiastically suggesting that he wear a pair of high-heeled boots with the outfit, it became very apparent that Kairi and Olette were perfect for each other.

“An actual pirate wouldn’t wear impractical high heels,” Riku pointed out, and Olette giggled.

“Well _obviously_ , but you’re not meant to be authentic on Halloween. It’s about being cheeky!”

Riku raised an eyebrow. ‘Cheeky’, huh? Well he supposed it was better than ‘slutty’, but it was clear she meant that anyway.

“And besides, it’s a house party. Won’t you be too hot in that?” Riku held his arms out. True, the material was thick and quite heavy. It certainly wouldn’t keep him cool.

“Maybe…”

Olette hummed thoughtfully. “Well I’ll go and look for a pair of heels and if I see any other outfits I’ll let you know.” She was already sauntering off before Riku could stop her. At least she didn’t know his shoe size. She couldn’t really do any damage without that information… right?

To be on the safe side, Riku made a point of looking for outfits that would be completely nonsensical to wear with heels, regardless of if it was a ‘cheeky’ Halloween costume or not. Not that he’d allow himself to be forced into a pair by either Olette or Kairi, but it would be nice not to deal with the latter nagging him every two seconds about wearing them right up until the party.

As luck would have it, as he came across the toy weapons section that Sora had clearly found on their first visit here, Riku spotted a Roman gladiator costume. Gladiators: notorious for their wearing of _sandals_. He didn’t really think about the rest as he snagged the outfit and headed to the changing rooms. It was only once he was finished tying the laces of the sandals, criss-crossing them up his calves and tying them just under his knees, that he straightened up and wondered if this was actually a better alternative than Kairi nagging him.

It wasn’t that it looked _bad_ , necessarily, just that… well he had gone from having too much fabric with the pirate costume, to not exactly having enough. He was essentially decked out in three strips of fabric: a short kilt, a collar, and a shoulder strap that cut across his torso but did absolutely _nothing_ to really cover him up. The collar was fashioned to look like armoured shoulder guards, despite the fact that there was no chest plate or tunic with the ensemble. Aside from the token gold plastic cuffs around both of his wrists, the rest of him was completely exposed.

“Riku? Are you in there?” Olette called. “I found some heels that would look good with the pirate outfit.”

Riku pulled back the curtain just a bit and peeked his head around it. He looked at her, then to the heels, then back to her. “I see.”

Olette tilted her head to the side. “Um, is everything okay?”

He nodded, but made no move to actually open the curtain. Olette’s eyebrows furrowed. “Would you, uh, like to try the heels on?” she asked, holding them out.

Riku shook his head. “I don’t think I need them. I, um…” he fiddled with the curtain. “I changed outfits.”

“Oh, you did?” She peered at him with great interest, but Riku still stood there awkwardly with his head sticking out of the curtain. “Can I… Can I see?”

Riku bit his lip and levelled her with a serious look. “Okay but… you can’t laugh.”

Olette nodded vigorously, making a motion of crossing her heart with her index finger. “I promise.”

Riku took a deep breath and reluctantly pulled back the curtain. This one simple action caused Olette to gasp and clap her hands together in delight.

“I love it!” she squealed. “You look so good!”

Riku shrank back a little under the weight of her enthusiasm. “You don’t think it’s too…” he made a vague gesture with his hands, not exactly sure of the word he was searching for, but knowing that she’d understand what he was getting at.

“No way! You look like Hercules! Ah, I mean, he was Greek and not Roman, but the style is similar!”

Riku snorted. He looked like Hercules? “I wish.” He had given it his damn best effort: lunges, crunches, late-night gym sessions, all of his jujitsu training. But there came a point where he simply couldn’t bulk up any more, and any emulation he had once tried to capture of his father’s broad build became blatantly impossible. Still, his physique was undeniably athletic; a dancer’s body, he had been told.

He tried not to be too bitter whenever he heard that.

“It looks really good,” Olette insisted, looking over him with an odd mixture of sheepishness and envy. “Just looking at you makes me feel bad that I’m not in the gym right now.”

Riku turned around, looking at his reflection from behind and tugging at the kilt— _pteruges_ , to use the technical term—worrying his bottom lip. “Isn’t it a little short?”

“No way! It’s just right,” she insisted.

Riku hesitated. “Just right _for what_?”

Green eyes sparkled mischievously and Riku felt heat creeping up his cheeks as a secretive little smile played on Olette’s lips. “Sora will love it,” she assured him.

“W-What—that’s not what I—he wouldn’t—” Riku gave up trying to remember how words worked and wrapped his arms around his body in something of a defensive hug.

_“Don’t you want to make sure his eyes are on you?”_

Okay, so he could admit to himself that he wanted Sora’s attention. He lived for that smile, craved his praise, and felt so ridiculously _happy_ when Sora gazed at him as if he was something special.

_“The instant you step through that door he can’t focus on anyone or anything else because there you are, dressed up so sexily that he can’t stand it.”_

And… and there was a part of him that wanted Sora to want him, because Riku wanted Sora, wanted him so much that at times it scared him. But Riku had never tried to be sexy before, and he wasn’t really sure how to go about doing it. Could he even _be_ sexy, with his height and his build? He was hardly ticking the usual boxes of omega attractiveness. What if Sora just thought he looked ridiculous in this outfit?

_“And you know that he can’t, and you go out of your way to tease him with your tight outfit and exposed skin that he’s dying to mark all over.”_

Did Sora think things like that, too? Was he also the victim of restless nights at the hands of a near uncontrollable desire for his omega, or was Riku the only one falling hard as he struggled to negotiate this new terrain of lust and yearning and _want_?

“Do you really think he’ll like it?” Riku asked, voice uncharacteristically meek and face a brilliant shade of red.

Olette placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, unfazed by how the action caused Riku to flinch a little under the touch. “Absolutely,” she promised. “But even beyond that, if I had a body like yours that I worked so hard for, I swear I’d be wearing something like that every day.”

The comment elicited a soft laugh from the silver haired omega, some of his worries fading away. Maybe this was one of those occasions where he should just go for it. He had a reputation of not caring what others thought, even though the truth was that he cared almost too much. But they didn’t know that, and so surely could strut into the party, radiating confidence and just _daring_ someone to question his outfit choice. And Olette was right: he _had_ put a lot of effort into his training regimens, so maybe for one night he could show off the results. Just this once.

“So… I guess a gladiator and a witch will be walking into that party.”

And as Olette beamed happily at him, Riku hoped that he wouldn’t actually look like the joke that this whole situation was setting him up to be.

x~x~x~x~x

The captain of Sora’s volleyball team rented a house along with five of his teammates that was about a twenty-minute walk away from the main campus. As part of the deal of allowing the various volleyball club members to have an unlimited number of guests, they were all roped into helping set everything up. That was why Sora wasn’t currently walking with Riku, Kairi, and Olette as they made their way along the cobblestone streets of Radiant Garden’s northern quarter.

Kairi had suggested that they turn up ‘fashionably late’, but what was supposed to be them showing up fifteen minutes late had turned into fifty the instant Kairi had gotten a glimpse of Riku’s gladiator attire. After her initial screaming had subsided she had _insisted_ on taking an inordinate amount of selfies with her best friend. And then Olette had shown up, and Riku would have been impressed at the fact that Kairi was able to keep herself from fainting had she not resumed her screaming and fawning all over again. And so it was that the two omegas found themselves the subjects of an impromptu photo-shoot at the hands of an overzealous playboy bunny with inexplicable mouse ears.

“I will actually murder you if any of those photos end up on Kingstagram,” Riku was threatening for the fifth time that evening, hands buried deep in the pockets of the long coat he had donned for the walk.

“Lighten up, Riri. You look like a total snack in all of them so I don’t see why you’re complaining.”

“What is a snack?!” Riku groaned in frustration, but he wasn’t surprised that Kairi just grinned at him and continued scrolling through her camera roll with the hand that wasn’t holding Olette’s.

“I think I could get Pence to edit together a collage and print it off,” Olette told her girlfriend, and Riku tuned out as the two young women excitedly chatted about which pictures would look the best together.

They made a cute couple. Kairi was positively beaming, her affection for the brunette omega by her side plain to see. And as ridiculous as Kairi may have been, Riku felt genuinely happy for his old friend.

After a few more minutes of walking, the group heard a heavy bass line pulsing through the air. From there it was very easy to pinpoint their party destination. Following the noise led them to a house decked out in gaudy Halloween fare, with orange streamers thrown haphazardly over the roof while cut-outs of spiders and ghosts had been stuck on the windows. A plastic skeleton was hanging from the tree just outside the property, and little electric jack-o-lanterns formed a path directly to the front door.

The party already seemed to be in full swing, and guests had already spilled out of the house and formed groups outside, chatting animatedly amongst themselves. They passed zombies and vampires and ghouls of all shapes and sizes, most of them showing a lot more skin than these creatures were known for. Clearly Kairi and Olette had a better estimation of Halloween clothing than himself, which was actually a good thing in this instance; Riku probably wouldn’t stand out all that much, after all.

“Now be careful, you two,” Kairi laughed as they passed a dangerously swaying phantom on the way to the entrance, “Don’t be that one bitch who gets too drunk and starts crying.”

“Isn’t that usually you?” Riku asked dryly.

“Lies and slander,” Kairi replied primly, waving her hand to dismiss the comment as if Riku _wasn’t_ the one who always had to drag her crying, tipsy arse back to her dorm room.

He chuckled and shook his head, gazing over to Olette. Poor thing. He placed a consoling hand on her shoulder. “Tonight, I’ll leave her to you. Good luck.”

Olette glanced at her girlfriend. “I’m sure she can’t be _that_ bad,” she said magnanimously, squeezing the alpha’s hand sweetly.

“Why thank you, Olette. It is so nice to have someone be supportive of me for once,” Kairi beamed, pecking the witch’s cheek and turning her nose up at Riku.

“Whatever,” he laughed, “Let’s just go inside.”

Entering the house was like being consumed by a cacophony of sound. Music blared, the beat pulsing through Riku, and all around there were spookily clad bodies dancing and writhing against each other. The volleyball team had certainly taken full advantage of the captain’s generous offer of an unlimited guest list, the combined body heat instantly causing Riku to tug at his coat.

Had the music been quieter then perhaps Riku would have heard the way a bright voice happily began to call his name, before the second syllable died on the tongue as Riku finally shrugged his way out of the coat. But the music wasn’t quieter, and the choked gasp at the end of Riku’s name was easily lost to the din.

What the gladiator _did_ quickly notice, however, was the distinct feeling of being watched. Despite the numerous partygoers and how hot it was, a shiver ran through his body as he felt a pair of eyes boring into him. He quickly glanced around, eyes alighting on a pair of deep blue ones.

 _Sora_.

They stared at each other for long moments, until Riku couldn’t take it any more and shamelessly raked his gaze over the form of his boyfriend. Tight-fitting torn and distressed trousers stretched enticingly over toned legs, and Sora had blessedly seen fit to also forego a shirt that evening, the unbuttoned red waistcoat with gold embroidery doing nothing to obscure his tight abs. Riku’s eyes lingered on the ever-present silver necklace that Sora proudly wore around his neck, a small thrill still thrumming through his veins whenever he caught sight of it, especially now when Sora was wearing precious little else.

The only other additions were a blue bandana peeking out from under the pirate captain’s hat atop the alpha’s head. Sora looked amazing, _unfairly_ so, to the point that Riku wasn't sure if this whole ‘sexy Halloween’ thing was a blessing or a curse.

So enraptured was he that he completely failed to notice the way Kairi had sidled up behind him, a mischievous glint in her eye as she leant up and raised her voice so that he could hear her over the music. “Hey Riri, for the sake of not breaking him, you might want to try looking a little less desperate for Captain Sora over there to plunder your booty.”

Riku jolted, and had his cheeks not already been flushed from where he had very obviously been checking Sora out, then they certainly would have at the comment. “I wasn’t!” he protested, more out of a matter of principle than actually trying to convince Kairi otherwise.

She just laughed and pushed him in Sora’s general direction with a jaunty, “Have fun and be safe, Riri!”

Riku glanced back and saw Olette flashing him an encouraging thumbs up while Kairi looked about ready to grab some popcorn from somewhere, her eyes eagerly flipping between Riku and Sora. The two young men negotiated the sea of bodies, steadily getting closer to each other, and Riku wisely used the time to consider what he was going to say lest he be left incoherently babbling.

And that was why, when they were close enough to hear each other over the music, Riku was able to say a very casual, “Hey,” and keep his eyes respectfully on Sora’s face.

“C-Coat?!” Sora blurted in response.

Riku blinked. “Huh?”

Sora laughed nervously. “Coat! Um, y-your coat, should I take it? I can put it in the, uh, the coat place.” He gestured to the coat that Riku had folded over his arm, and the taller male got the gist of what the other was going for, handing it over a little awkwardly. Riku tugged self-consciously at the hem of his kilt as a means of giving his hands something to do, but the action inadvertently caused Sora’s eyes to drag down Riku’s body and linger on his legs for a long moment.

“D-Drink?!” Sora sounded as if the word had been strangled out of him.

It was only then that Riku noticed that Sora was holding a half-empty bottle of something, and he couldn’t help but stare as Sora took a big swig from it, watching his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed.

“I don't—” Riku began, before biting his lip. He didn’t drink. He preferred to stay alert and keep his wits about him. But Riku wasn’t used to loud parties and large gatherings of people, and he would be grateful if his jumbled thoughts could just _slow down_ for a second. And so instead he said, “Yeah, sounds good. What have you got?”

They pushed their way through into the kitchen, where an assortment of nibbles and an almost incomprehensible variety of drinks furnished the counter tops. The music wasn’t quite so bone shattering in here and it was much easier to talk at a normal volume. Sora had drained his bottle on the way over and reached for another one now, Riku looking at it curiously.

“Is that beer?” he asked.

Sora pulled a face. “Nah, beer is too bitter. This is piña colada in a bottle~” he hummed.

“Pineapples again?”

“You know it!” Sora laughed. “Wanna try?” He held it out, and Riku tentatively took it. He took a deep breath and raised the bottle to his lips, screwing his eyes shut as he braced for the taste. He opened them in wonder when the drink didn’t taste even remotely alcoholic. It was sweet, almost like juice, and it slid down his throat pleasantly. It was a far cry from the stuff Ansem usually gave him, hard liquor that burnt as he swallowed it down and left a nasty aftertaste in his mouth. Instead a sweet tang lingered on his tongue like an old friend, nothing hard-hitting or overpowering about it.

“It’s sweet,” he murmured, licking his lips.

“Yeah.” A pause. Sora reached for another piña colada seeing as Riku had commandeered his latest one. “You…” Sora cleared his throat. “You look really good, Riku.”

Riku squeezed the bottle between both of his hands. “T-Thanks.” Another sip. “You too… you look amazing, Sora.”

Sora huffed a laugh, holding his bottle up. “Happy Halloween!” he grinned, and Riku noticed that the brunette’s canines seemed unusually pointy.

“Are those _fangs_?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sora grinned even wider. “Yup!”

“ _Why_?”

“Because,” and Sora whipped his hat off of his head, bowing low, “I am a vampire pirate! A vampirate, if you will.”

Riku stared at him before bursting out laughing. Only Sora could be so incredibly silly and yet still manage to make that sexy. “I bet you just couldn’t choose between going as a vampire or going as a pirate.”

“Why choose when I can be a vampirate?”

“Stop saying vampirate,” Riku said, failing to suppress his laughter.

“You don’t think it’s even just _a bit_ clever?” Sora asked, nudging him playfully.

“Maybe just a bit.” Sora beamed at him and Riku shook his head fondly. “But you are far too proud of it.”

“Can’t be too proud of genius,” Sora replied, and Riku leant in to kiss him if only to shut his ridiculous alpha up for a moment. He had meant it to be a peck, he really did. Any lingering on his part was completely accidental. But if Sora’s lips followed his as he tried to pull back, well, it couldn’t really be helped, right? And when Sora’s tongue swept across Riku’s bottom lip, it was only good and right that Riku should return the favour.

Sora tasted sweet, the tang of pineapple and coconut from the piña colada noticeable as their tongues twined together, but it tasted so much better this way. It was impossible for Riku to be drunk from only a couple of sips, but he nevertheless felt a sort of weightlessness as he drank Sora in. He tugged on Sora’s waistcoat to bring them closer together, and he felt the cool push of the countertop against his back as the alpha obliged, pressing close to Riku as his hands tentatively came to rest on the gladiator’s hips.

It was the sound of a bottle smashing that pulled them back to their senses and the couple parted, a touch more flushed and breathless than the situation had really allowed for.

“I, ah, I’ll go put your coat away,” Sora said in a way that made it seem like he had gone to great lengths to form that sentence coherently. Riku wasn’t sure he could even do that and simply nodded, watching as Sora slipped out of the kitchen. He sought his piña colada out and began to drain the bottle at a pretty steady pace; it tasted more like juice than alcohol, and for some reason Riku felt parched in that moment.

He turned to regard the Frankenstein’s monster on the other side of the kitchen, the one that had clearly dropped their drink earlier seeing as they were now crouching on the floor and picking up glass shards along with a sexy ladybird and a beta dressed as an aubergine.

“Riku! You found the drinks!”

Riku glanced up in time to see Kairi skipping into the kitchen, Olette on her arm. She looked around before grabbing a beer and taking the cap off with her teeth, a party trick that she often displayed on a night out. Olette’s impressed cooing just caused her to puff up her chest proudly.

“Where’s your sexy pirate captain?” she asked, taking a swig of her drink.

“Went to put my coat somewhere.”

Olette reached for something brightly coloured and fruity looking. “Would you like to come and dance with us?” she asked.

“I’ll be fine staying he—”

“He’d love to,” Kairi decided, moving over to grab Riku’s arm. “Fun fact about Riku: he loves dancing.”

While the gladiator knew exactly what the playboy bunny was basing this assertion on, he still pulled out of her grip and made a point of finishing his drink. He didn’t feel thirsty any more. In fact, he felt pleasantly relaxed. “I like to _watch_ dancing, not do it myself,” he corrected.

Kairi looked at the empty bottle for a moment in surprise before a small, sly smile came to her lips. “You’ve always wanted to try it though,” she pointed out.

“Well…” Riku considered it. “Not that sort of dancing.”

“But it’s all good practice, right?”

Riku considered this again. She had a fair point. And maybe it would be fun. He already felt loosened up, limbs relaxed enough that he could easily move to the manufactured music blaring in the other room. After considering her proposition carefully, Riku came to the conclusion that yes, actually, he would like to dance. Upon delivering this verdict to Kairi and Olette he was met with happy squeals, the both of them grabbing an arm each to tug him away from the kitchen.

(But not before Riku could swipe a bottle of something that was filled with a bright blue liquid. He liked blue, and he was very much cognisant of that fact that he would need a way to keep hydrated if he were to do something physically exerting. He mentally patted himself on the back for being so sensible.)

He honestly wasn’t sure how the three of them managed to traverse the rooms beyond the kitchen, each one so tightly packed as to be bordering on claustrophobic. With the exception of the kitchen and the actual entrance to the house, the lights had been dimmed in favour of a combination of lamps, jack-o-lanterns, fairy lights, and even a precariously hanging disco ball in one of the rooms. Kairi, clearly wanting to test her luck, decided that right underneath said disco ball was the perfect dancing spot. After a few sips of his drink and then becoming very aware of the silver patterns the ball was casting over his body, Riku soon found himself in agreement with her choice.

Riku didn’t know the song that was currently playing. There didn’t seem to be any lyrics, and the heavy bass line pounded right through him until it felt like his mind was fusing with the sound, pulsing inside of his head in time with the beat. He couldn’t dance to something like this, at least not well, but his impromptu dance partners seemed to be the same. Olette was bobbing cutely from side to side, her skirts swishing almost hypnotically to the tune. But as sweet as it was, it didn’t really fit the song’s vibe.

And then there was Kairi. The alpha had one move and one move only: dropping her arse to the floor and then slowly working her way back up. But she dropped too soon, before the beat itself dropped, and then just looked a little foolish as she sheepishly brought herself back up again. Riku had laughed at that, to which Kairi dared him to do better.

“No way!” he yelled over the music, eyes narrowing at the smirk that Kairi sent his way.

“You’re just scared because you know I’ll wipe the dance floor with you!” she goaded him, somehow managing to stand tall and proud despite the ever-present jostling of people around them.

There was a part of Riku that was indignant at her assertion and his natural competitiveness urged him to prove her wrong, bubbling just below the surface of his skin. This was tempered, however, by the twin pillars of ‘reason’ and ‘self preservation’, both of which pointed out that there was absolutely nothing to be gained from slutdropping.

Riku was quite happy for that to have been the end of the matter. But then Kairi started to aggressively vogue around him like some sort of voguing vulture circling its prey, and then a shirtless alpha cowboy moseyed on into the room baring a tray full of multi-coloured shots, and Riku was left wondering if this situation could get any more bizarre.

Kairi snatched up a pink shot and Olette reached for an orange one, both of them looking at Riku expectantly. He was about to turn it down but then Kairi piped up again.

“Can’t handle it?” the alpha teased, and it was Riku’s pride that ended up grabbing a yellow shot in order to prove a point.

He threw his head back, downing the shot in one go. As the liquid slid down his throat—it was incredibly sour and strong and caused Riku to pull a face and quickly chase it with that sweet blue drink he had grabbed earlier—he felt something ignite within him. It was as if the drink had been oil to feed the flames of his competitiveness. Those flames flared up now, stronger than ever, licking their way through his body and engulfing his mind until the only thing that made any sense was to wipe that smug look off of Kairi’s face.

She may have been his best friend, but Riku refused to lose to an alpha.

And so he dropped it down low—in time with the beat drop as well, he noted, grinning haughtily at the alpha who had foolishly tried to take him on. Olette cheered at his performance, clapping her hands enthusiastically, and Kairi narrowed her eyes. She immediately declared war, challenging him to an all-out dance battle.

“Bring it on!” he yelled, accepting her challenge head-on.

It was hard to tell how long their battle raged because all of the music sounded the same—loud, made with a computer, mind numbing—but when Kairi started to throw some serious shapes, Riku knew that he needed to step it up. He discarded his bottle (that at some point had somehow become empty) so that he could throw his hands in the air like he just didn’t care. But he did care; he cared about winning.

They danced for a long time. Or at least, it _felt_ like a long time, long enough for Riku to start missing Sora and wonder where on earth he had disappeared to. His battle with Kairi had descended into madness, and while he threw his all into his sprinkler in answer to her cabbage patch, he suddenly wasn’t as bothered about winning any more. He just wanted Sora.

The gladiator looked around, thankful that his height actually allowed him to see over most of the wall of bodies that surrounded them, but at no point did he spot a distinctive pirate hat. And then he was struck with an idea: the warmth. Sora always radiated a comforting warmth that made Riku want to curl up and stay by his side for as long as Sora would allow for. The alpha was imbued with the scent of the sun, an almighty light to cast aside the darkness, and surely he could follow that light now.

Maybe Kairi was right. Those alphas and omegas in the fairy tales her grandma would read to her could traverse great distances on pure instinct, seeking out that magnetic connection they knew to be true. The campus, the library… Riku had _felt_ it, so surely he could use it to find Sora now.

He didn’t know if there was a trick to it, so he started by closing his eyes and trying to _focus_. The last time it had happened it had come on suddenly, like a mighty wave crashing over him and leaving him feeling paralysed. But nothing like that was happening now. It just felt like the thudding beat was rattling his ribcage harder as he was jostled around in the crowd.

But then… _there_. On the very periphery of his senses there was a warmth leaking in, and Riku stumbled after it.

He probably should have had the forethought to open his eyes, as blindly making his way through throngs of monsters was proving to be difficult. But Riku didn’t want to _lose_ this now that he had found it. Step by step, just a little closer each time, that warmth was calling him home, overpowering the heat and hullaballoo of the party.

 _‘More,’_ Riku thought as it slowly overtook his senses, mind soaked in a hot haze. _‘Mine. My alpha.’_ But just when Riku felt like he was so close he could _taste_ Sora, the spell was broken when someone let out a loud cheer and slammed into him, and then suddenly he was wet.

Riku was jolted out of his concentration, eyes flying open to try and figure out exactly what had just happened. He came face-to-face with a sheepish looking Jason Voorhees, who was tugging off his hockey mask and saying something that was probably an apology. Riku regarded the empty bottle in the killer’s hands, then looked down at himself to see rivulets of something running down his body and soaking into his sash and kilt. The omega curiously swiped two of his fingers through the liquid and brought them up to his mouth for a taste.

Ew. Bitter.

Jason was staring at him now. Was there something on his face? What did that look mean? Riku’s eyebrows furrowed when the other placed a hand on his lower back, leering at him. Riku wasn’t sure who this guy thought he was but he wasn’t Sora and that annoyed him, so he swiftly took that wandering hand into a wrist lock and tossed the guy off of him. The omega took a large gulp of the drink in his free hand, paused for a moment to consider _where_ he had gotten this one from and had he been holding that this whole time, before shrugging and heading off to find a bathroom where he could dry off.

The first door he tried was a closet, the second was a bedroom, but on the third attempt he struck gold and found a bathroom.

The first thing Riku did was finish off his drink, closing his eyes against the strong burn and allowing the liquid to soak into his mind because staying hydrated was incredibly important for cognitive performance. He then placed the empty drink to one side, because he couldn’t dry himself off if he didn’t have both of his hands free. He mentally patted himself on the back for possessing such wonderful foresight; clearly the hydration was already working wonders.

The second thing he did was spot a towel, but whatever had spilt on him had semi-dried and it was sticky, so he was sort of uselessly pawing at himself and not resolving the issue. And so the third thing he did was go to the tap and cup his hands under the water, before putting it on himself, which _did_ get rid of the stickiness, but made him wet all over again.

Riku bit his lip. This conundrum was harder to solve than it initially seemed. But then, he spotted it:

A hair dryer.

Overcome for a moment by his sheer genius, Riku stumbled over to the hair dryer and quickly plugged it in, before turning it on himself. Hot air began to dry out his outfit and he made a mental note to file this moment away as one of the best ideas he had ever had. It was a shame that his outfit didn’t have pockets and so he’d needed to leave his mobile at home, because this was definitely something the Getsumei Group should know about. His father would _surely_ see the use of a hair dryer, but it’s actually a _clothes_ dryer. It would be the investment of the century! God Riku was smart. No wonder his transcripts were perfect. He should tell Ansem as well, and he’d just laugh as that smug expression he usually wore morphed into begrudging respect.

His plan was going so swimmingly that it seemed only natural to shimmy out of his boxer-briefs in order to properly dry those as well. However halfway through the very important drying process, there was suddenly urgent knocking on the door.

Riku froze, one hand holding his underwear up in the air while the other held the newly fashioned ‘clothes dryer’ up to them. But Riku was a quick thinker, of course he was. This was the brilliant mind that had come up with the clothes dryer, after all, and so he quickly switched the appliance off and shoved his underwear behind the toilet. There. No one would ever know.

A zombie penguin nearly fell on top of him once he opened the door, but the creature caught itself just in time before waddling frantically over to the toilet in order to expel their insides. Riku resolved that he should just come back for his underwear at a later time when there weren’t any undead aquatic flightless birds disgorging their innards in the vicinity.

And so, freer and breezier, the gladiator headed back out into the main area. His posture was excellent, back straight and head held high, the perfect stealthy cover for his current state of being. Proud of his expert handling of this unforeseen detour, Riku once more set about his mission of finding the missing vampirate.

He giggled. Vampirate. He supposed it _was_ pretty clever.

He started combing the various rooms until he ended up back in the one with the disco ball. At the far side of the room a playboy bunny had cornered a witch and the two were locked in a rather heated embrace. Riku was about to politely avert his gaze until he realised that the bunny’s silhouette looked distinctly familiar. Kairi probably didn’t hear his cheer of support, but he felt it important that he convey his encouragement to her in that moment. She deserved this. She was a great friend and a considerate alpha. Riku was struck with the very powerful urge to tell Kairi that he loved her, because he didn’t say it nearly often enough, but then someone placed a hand on his shoulder and when he turned to look he was greeted by the sight of a pirate hat and a fanged grin.

“Riku!” Sora sounded relieved, tugging the omega into his chest and holding him tight. Riku had absolutely zero complaints about this new development. “Where did you go?” he asked into Riku’s ear so that he could hear over the thumping music, nuzzling at his neck affectionately. Riku tensed in anticipation; was Sora going to scent him again?

“You left,” he replied, wrapping his arms around the alpha, “So I went to find you.”

“Sorry, I’m here now.” Sora squeezed tighter, almost possessively. “You’re okay, right? No one tried anything?”

Somewhere in his liquefied mind, Riku comprehended exactly what it was that Sora was getting at. He wondered what he’d do if he told him about Jason. Part of him kind of liked the idea of Sora defending his honour. But his curiosity wasn’t stronger than his desire for Sora to stay here instead of chasing after some idiot in a hockey mask.

“I’m fine,” the gladiator replied, pulling back slightly so that he could lean down and brush his lips against Sora’s. He sighed happily. “Want to dance?” he asked.

The vampirate smiled and took a step back, bowing low as he held his hand out as if they were about to start ballroom dancing to the pop-techno fusion currently booming around them. Riku took the proffered hand and immediately spun Sora around just because he could. Sora blinked before he started laughing, so Riku did it again, and then Sora stopped his momentum on the third spin and twirled Riku around instead.

It wasn’t exactly what Riku had in mind, the two of them somehow engaged in a competition over who could spin the other the most times, but it was fun and it was different and it was with Sora, and so he didn’t stop until he felt utterly dizzy, swaying on his feet, and Sora wasn’t faring much better.

They clung to each other for support, chests heaving with laughter, and spent a few long moments rocking from side to side before the beat dropped and they sprang apart to bounce along to the rhythm. Sora’s limbs moved with a slightly uncoordinated quality that Riku attributed to the other having consumed a few too many piña coladas, and it would be a lie to say the omega didn’t feel a little smug at how well he had _clearly_ held his in comparison. If anything the alcohol had made him a better dancer and even a master inventor. He was truly blessed.

Songs came and went, and they cycled through iterations of jerky dancing, a disastrous(ly funny) attempt at a tango, some more twirling, and then at some point they had dropped the pretence of dancing altogether and were just using the music as an excuse to press against one another as eager lips came together in enthusiastic, if slightly sloppy, kisses.

Sora was sweeter and far more intoxicating than any drink. Each press of his lips and every drag of his tongue stoked the flames of a seemingly bottomless carnality deep in Riku’s core. And as the omega’s tongue swept over one of Sora’s ridiculous ‘fangs’ he was overcome with an almost dizzying wave of unadulterated affection. This heady combination of raw lust and pure adoration, both so new to him individually, and overwhelmingly potent together, made Riku feel like he was drowning.

As long as Sora was there at the bottom, Riku would sink down willingly.

The alpha’s hands were on his hips again, ruching the material of his kilt up when he squeezed. It was too loud for him to have heard the pleased noise Riku made in response, but he must have felt the vibration of it from where their lips were connected because the next moment Sora was boldly running a hand up his thigh.

And then it all stopped.

The kisses, the touches, all of it ended when Sora abruptly pulled away and looked at Riku with wide eyes, mouth opening and closing uselessly for a few seconds before he seemed to give up on trying to form a sentence.

Riku frowned, feeling very hard done by in that moment, and tried to tug Sora back to him. This seemed to shock the pirate back into action, grabbing Riku’s wrist almost painfully and dragging him out of the room.

“Hey, Sora!” Riku called above the music, “What are you doing?!”

If Sora heard him then he didn’t bother responding. He just moved with an incredible sense of _urgency_ , and while Riku could have gotten out of the grip and demanded answers right then and there, he was curious to know where Sora seemed so intent on taking them.

Through the hall, up the stairs, and then the second room on the right. Riku had a brief moment to notice all the coats strewn about this bedroom before Sora slammed the door shut behind them and then backed the gladiator up against it, hands braced against the door on either side of Riku’s head. His breath was coming out in shaky, near ragged pants, eyes locked onto him in a predatory manner.

For one brief, crazy moment, Riku felt totally trapped. But more than that: he had absolutely no desire whatsoever to escape.

“Riku, please,” Sora said, sounding like a man verging on the edge of insanity, “ _Please_ tell me that you’re wearing underwear right now.”

Riku blinked at him, then he furrowed his eyebrows. Underwear… why did he feel like something significant happened? He reached down and pulled his kilt up at the side, exposing his hip and the fact that he really wasn’t wearing any. That’s right! They were in the bathroom, having only been subjected to half of the very complex drying process. But no one was meant to find out. It was meant to be a secret. But Sora was good at keeping secrets, right? He could trust Sora. And so he just giggled and brought his index finger up to his lips. “Shh, don’t say it out loud. It’s a secret.”

Sora groaned out an, “ _Oh my god_ ,” quickly pushing himself away from Riku and pacing around the room. He made to run a hand through his hair but clearly forgot about his hat, and so awkwardly fumbled to catch it as he looked back at Riku in astonishment. “Why aren’t you wearing any?!” he asked, borderline hysterical.

Why? That was easy. “Because I got wet,” Riku explained.

If he listened closely enough, he might have heard Sora’s brain short-circuiting.

“Y-You… _what_?!”

Riku leant back against the door, recalling his earlier adventures on his quest to find Sora. “Well, I was thinking about you, so I went to look for you, and then I got wet,” he elaborated. He paused, trying to find the right words to describe the whole fiasco with the sickly zombie penguin, but he never got a chance to utter them.

The alpha let out a guttural noise that sounded like something between a moan and a growl, muttering something about dreams and this not being real, but when Sora’s body was pressing him into the door again in the next moment everything between them seemed nothing _but_ real.

A sweet, fevered, dream-like reality.

Sora was mouthing at his collarbone, fingers lightly brushing over one of Riku’s exposed nipples. Riku shuddered, tilting his head back as best he could with the door directly behind him, and Sora cursed lightly under his breath as his free hand quickly flew to his own mouth. He hastily tossed something to the side, and Riku belatedly realised that it must have been those plastic fangs as Sora’s teeth nipped and sucked along the strip of collarbone that wasn’t being obscured by the gladiator’s shoulder guards.

Riku’s hands were smoothing down Sora’s chest, tracing the curve of his pectorals before his curious fingers tweaked the alpha’s nipples. Sora groaned low in his throat, so Riku did it again, and this caused Sora to quickly dip his head down to one of Riku’s own nipples and _suck_ , and Riku felt his knees buckle dangerously below him.

Sora’s tongue laved over the hardened nub, rolling it between his teeth until Riku’s body was trembling. The omega’s hands found purchase against Sora’s strong back, his nails dragging down the hot expanse of skin with each flick of that torturous tongue.

“ _Sora_ ,” Riku gasped, using one of his long legs to wrap around Sora’s waist and bring their crotches close together. He could feel Sora’s growing arousal against his own, and when his fevered mind remembered the treasure the pirate was concealing underneath those trousers he moaned, rolling his hips as yet another hot wave of lust crashed over him. “ _More_.”

“You’re so sexy, Riku,” Sora murmured against his heated skin, and Riku shuddered and bucked his hips again. Sora groaned, his hand wrapping around Riku’s thigh to keep his leg wrapped in place. “I feel like I’m going crazy.” He kissed and licked a trail upwards, along Riku’s neck, his jaw, his chin, and true to his current pirate attire he plundered Riku’s mouth when he reached it. Sora was fully hard now; Riku could feel it from where they were pressed intimately together. That, in combination with the overwhelming kiss and the fact that the hand Sora had on his thigh was nudging upwards under his kilt and squeezing the firm flesh of his arse, drew out that tell-tale liquid heat of the omega’s complete and utter arousal.

When Sora’s fingers experimentally dragged along the cleft of his arse they both moaned into each other’s mouths. Sora hesitated for a brief moment before, quite suddenly, his free hand cupped Riku’s bum and, using the door as leverage, hefted Riku upwards. Riku gasped in surprise as he was completely suspended in the air, instinctually wrapping his other leg around Sora’s waist while his nails dug in harder against Sora’s solid back in order to keep from slipping.

It was oddly exhilarating: Riku’s mind was already weightless and now he physically felt so as well. Riku trusted that Sora wouldn’t let him fall, the alpha holding him up effortlessly as he blindly walked backwards until the back of his legs came into contact with the coat-covered bed.

He sat down on the mattress and Riku rearranged himself so that he was straddling Sora, letting out a breathless laugh against his lips as he asked, “Was that necessary?”

Sora grinned, a heady blend of giddy and feral, replying in that deliciously deep voice he got whenever they were like this. “ _Absolutely_.” His hands boldly cupped Riku’s arse, kneading the flesh, and Riku shivered in anticipation when his fingers once more dragged teasingly along the cleft.

“Stop teasing,” Riku groaned, nipping at Sora’s bottom lip as he wriggled his hips.

Sora growled lightly, squeezing harder. “Like you haven’t been teasing me all night. I can’t believe you wore a _skirt_.” Riku would have countered with the fact that it wasn’t _actually_ a skirt, and that Sora had been just as much of a tease, but the alpha had punctuated the end of his sentence by running his index finger over the omega's slick entrance and any snarky comments died on his tongue in favour of letting out a sound suspiciously akin to a whimper.

And then that finger was pushing inside of him, agonisingly slowly. Riku gasped and buried his face in the crook of Sora’s neck, breathing in deep, taking Sora in in as many ways as he could. It was strange taking in a finger that wasn’t his own, but the knowledge that it was _Sora_ doing this to him had him squirming and moaning for more.

Sora was more than happy to oblige him, calling out Riku’s name with an almost holy reverence as he slid a second finger inside, twisting and spreading them in a way that was entirely addictive. Riku’s legs were shaking and he harshly bit down on the alpha’s shoulder to keep himself from crying out when those wonderful fingers curled upwards and brushed against the spot that had him seeing stars.

Sora moaned at the pleasure-pain blooming against his shoulder, and his answering response was to pull his fingers out altogether. In reality it was just for a brief moment but it felt long enough that Riku started whining, lapping apologetically at the deep mark with his tongue. But then three fingers thrust inside almost roughly, and the sound Riku’s body made as he greedily took those fingers in was downright _obscene_. He practically sobbed Sora’s name as those torturous fingers twisted and probed deep inside of him, each brush against his prostate turning him into more and more of a panting, needy mess.

His mind was dizzyingly stuck on the alpha. This ridiculous, incredible, _magnificent_ alpha whose fingers played Riku like a finely tuned instrument, pulling out staccato gasps and melodious moans with ease. Riku’s lips were back on Sora’s torso, sucking marks onto his chest this time, because he was scared to let his words be as honest as his body was being. His mind was molten goo and he would have said anything to please his alpha in that moment. Maybe he was drunk, on alcohol or on Sora or on both, he didn’t know, but it was clear that he had craved this.

Riku started riding Sora’s fingers, thrusting his hips wantonly against the digits and wondering how he had managed to live so far without fucking himself on them. They stretched him wonderfully and a much baser part of him couldn’t get enough, elated with this newfound closeness to his alpha.

It was overwhelming. His entire body was trembling and he felt so hot he thought that he might melt. He clung to Sora for dear life, hips moving of their own accord and building up to something so powerful it was almost scary.

Sora’s free hand cupped the back of his head then, running soothingly through his hair as he said, “I’ve got you.”

Affection bloomed in Riku’s chest. That’s right; Sora wouldn’t let him fall. Sora would always be right here with him.

Riku kissed him hard, trying to pour all of his feelings into Sora that way. The hand that was in his hair moved down his back, rubbing comforting circles into his hip as the edges of Riku’s vision began to turn white. He was already a wet, horny mess, Sora’s fingers covered in his slick, so when the hand on his hip lightly wrapped around his thus far neglected and weeping cock, that was all the stimulation the omega needed to be pushed over the edge.

He came with a weak, shaky little scream of Sora’s name, body convulsing as his orgasm swept through him in wave after wave of potent pleasure.

Sora held him throughout, a warm and solid and incredibly comforting presence. He let out a small moan as Sora gently pulled his fingers out of him, and Riku took a few long seconds to come down from his high. He nuzzled affectionately against Sora’s neck, feeling a whole new level of closeness to him in that moment. He wrapped his arms tighter around Sora and felt an indescribably deep sense of belonging. _‘Mine,’_ every part of him was saying, and within the hot and heavy scent of sex surrounding them, something else lingered. Riku pulled back, feeling immeasurably pleased and proud, and Sora gazed up at him in awe, pupils blown wide as his breath hitched.

“Riku…” he murmured, and Riku smiled as his scent now clung firmly to Sora, staking a claim on him just as Sora had done to him back in the library. And given that he had scented the alpha during something like this, it was bound to stick around for more than twenty-four hours. That thought sent his mind reeling happily.

“My turn,” he said, kissing his way down Sora’s neck and chest and abdomen, slipping off of Sora’s lap to kneel on the floor.

“R-Riku?” It sounded as if all air had been forced out of Sora’s lungs, and he gasped violently as Riku’s hands ran appreciatively up his toned calves before coming to stop on his knees, carefully spreading them so that he could situate himself between Sora’s legs more comfortably.

Riku tucked a strand of his long hair behind his ear, but just as he reached out to tug at the waistband of Sora’s trousers, the alpha placed his hand atop Riku’s head, coaxing him to look up. Sora’s face was a sex-kissed red, deep azure eyes locked onto him intently. He licked his lips, but showcased remarkable discipline as he said, “You don’t have to…”

Riku had to bite back a whine, because he didn’t want Sora to stop him. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about doing this ever since that wonderful cock was first bared to him. “I _want_ to,” he insisted, gazing up at the alpha imploringly. “Can I? Please?”

Sora’s hand fisted tightly in his hair and a strangled, “ _Jesus_ , Riku!” forced its way out of his mouth. Riku only winced a little bit at the strong grip, not really having the presence of mind to analyse why the pain saturated his mind with a hot fog. Instead he tugged at Sora’s waistband and the pirate lifted his hips, helping Riku divest himself of the garment and his underwear until both were pooling around his ankles.

Sora’s cock curved pleasingly against his taut stomach, large and already leaking. The omega felt slightly dizzy at the idea that _he_ had caused this, that this was all for _him_. The sight had Riku salivating, and he leant forward to lap at the head, collecting the pre-cum on his tongue.

Sora let out a shaky moan, his eyes never once leaving him. Riku knew because whenever he glanced up that hungry gaze would be watching as if enraptured. He licked Sora from base to tip as if he were a lollipop, before placing a small kiss to the tip and parting his lips carefully.

He had never done this before so he concentrated intently on stretching his mouth over the thick length, taking in as much as he could in a bid to sate the base urge of wanting to coat his face in Sora’s scent as he sucked his cock.

He relaxed his jaw as best he could, letting his lips and tongue drag along Sora’s skin, memorising the feel of it in his mouth.

“You feel great, Riku,” Sora groaned appreciatively, his hips twitching as if wanting to buck up into the wet heat of his mouth. The hand in Riku’s hair was shaking and Riku moaned around the member in his mouth, feeling drunk on the knowledge that he was pleasing his alpha.

He started to bob his head up and down, the heated flesh sitting heavy on his tongue. He took Sora in as deep as he dared, and then a little deeper still, but Riku nearly ended up choking and so he quickly pulled back, saliva dribbling down his chin. Instead he wrapped a hand around what he couldn’t yet manage, doing his best to pump in time to the rhythm of his mouth and delighting in each pleasured sound that fell from Sora’s lips.

The alpha’s thighs were twitching and shaking, and Riku worked over his cock with inexperienced enthusiasm. The heady scent of Sora’s arousal was especially thick like this, and Riku drank it in as greedily as he drank the pre-cum sliding pleasantly down his throat.

And then Sora’s hand was tugging urgently on his hair, breathing ragged. “Riku, I’m gonna— _oh god_ —gonna come,” he panted. “S-Stop.”

Riku could hardly voice his displeasure at being told to stop, so instead he whined around Sora’s large cock, eyes looking up at him to try and convey that he absolutely _refused_ to be deprived of this. He figured that it must have worked, because Sora’s eyes widened as he choked out an, “Oh _fuck_ , Riku!” and then a hot and thick liquid was pouring into his mouth and coating his senses.

Even though the omega had wanted it, he couldn’t have been truly _prepared_ for it. He hadn’t expected there to be so much but he did his best to diligently swallow all he could. Sora’s cum was like an aphrodisiac, warm and salty with an underlying sweetness. God, he could get hooked on this. Once Sora’s orgasm had peaked, Riku took great care in gathering every last drop he could as he pulled away, licking his mouth to get the last bit of cum dripping down his lips. Sora moaned and shuddered at that, still looking at him, but his gaze was half-lidded and slightly unfocused now.

Sora’s grip on Riku’s hair had fallen slack, chest rising and falling heavily with his deep breaths, his kiss-swollen lips slightly parted, and his cheeks deeply flushed.

Riku couldn’t help but think that Sora looked so very beautiful like this.

The alpha weakly stood up, clumsily tucking himself back into his underwear and trousers before pulling Riku up and into a warm hug. But before either of them could say anything, someone was fiddling with the door handle and then the door was flung open, banging loudly against the wall and causing the pair to separate immediately. Sora stuck his hands in his pockets and tried to look as casual as possible while still sporting a post-sex blush and a torso littered with love bites, while Riku hastily grabbed a random coat and used it to shield himself from view, using the sleeve to wipe at his face.

Both of them looked to the door, and Riku’s eyes widened in shock. No. It wasn’t possible…

The zombie penguin from earlier drunkenly waddled into the room, hardly seeming to notice its red-faced occupants. It looked around, attempted to pick up a coat with its flippers, failed, and then promptly passed out on the floor.

Sora and Riku regarded each other for a moment.

“You… didn’t lock the door?” Riku asked slowly.

Sora scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. “That was, ah, kinda the last thing on my mind, honestly…”

They both looked at the penguin, then back at each other.

“Did that actually just happen?” Sora asked, and Riku didn’t know if he was referring to the abrupt arrival of their fuddled flightless friend, or… everything else.

“Yeah…” Riku responded, placing a hand over his heart and recalling in great detail with even greater mortification everything that had occurred the instant he had walked into this house earlier that evening. Nothing sobered one up quite like a zombified penguin nearly walking in on one sucking off one’s boyfriend in a lust-filled, alcohol-soaked daze. “I think,” he concluded after a moment, “That I’m going to go back to my room and suffocate myself to death with a pillow now.”

Sora burst out laughing. “Don’t you dare!”

Riku groaned, looking around the room for his actual coat. “I’m never going to another party again,” he said seriously.

“Aw, c’mon, it wasn’t _that_ bad. In fact I’d say it was, like, _super_ good,” Sora grinned, the boyish innocence of it ruined somewhat by his sex-dishevelled image.

Riku was busy pulling on his coat and cringing at the fact that he had really just gone and hidden his underwear in a stranger’s bathroom—and thought that it had been a _good idea_.

“I still can’t believe you wore a skirt,” Sora said, watching as Riku’s fingers deftly did up his coat buttons and hid this fact from view.

“It’s not a skirt,” he muttered, “It’s a pteruges.”

“It’s totally a skirt,” Sora snickered, neatly sidestepping the passed-out penguin and rifling around until he found his own coat.

“Oh my god,” Riku groaned, burying his face in his hands, “Can we just go? I want to forget tonight ever happened.”

Sora frowned, placing a hand on Riku’s shoulder. “All of it?” he asked, and he looked so damn vulnerable in that moment that Riku capitulated immediately.

“W-Well, maybe not all of it,” he mumbled. “The bits involving you were… fine.”

Sora chuckled, leaning up to peck his cheek. “Damn, Riku. If that’s what your idea of ‘fine’ is then I can’t _wait_ to see what your ‘good’ is like.”

Riku slapped Sora’s shoulder and strode towards the door, wondering if his face was just going to be permanently flushed with embarrassment from now on. Sora trailed happily after him, casually bringing up the fact that one of his swim teammates was having a birthday party next month and did Riku fancy wearing a dress to that one?

As they walked out into the bracing night air, Riku might have noticed the sobbing playboy bunny draping herself over an exasperated witch, drunkenly spouting dramatic love confessions under the tree that had the plastic skeleton hanging from it as if it were some sort of spooky mistletoe. He might have also felt a degree of smugness, validated in his earlier comments.

As it was, however, he was far too engaged in a heated debate with Sora over the differences between—and characteristics of—skirts, kilts, and pteruges. And if the residents of Radiant Garden listened carefully enough, they may have heard said debate steadily descend into hushed laughter as a Roman gladiator and a de-fanged vampirate walked hand-in-hand.

x~x~x~x~x

It was early Tuesday evening when there was a knock on Riku’s door. He had been going over the plans for a proposed power plant that the utilities arm of the Getsumei Group—Shinra—had put forward. He paused the current song he had been listening to—Tchaikovsky’s ‘Dance of the Reed Flutes’—and curiously headed to the door.

As soon as he had opened his door he was greeted by Sora’s sunny grin. “Trick or treat!”

Riku blinked at him. “Huh?”

“You took too long, so I choose ‘treat’,” Sora replied, swooping in to steal a quick kiss from Riku’s lips.

“Wait a minute, what’s going on?” Riku asked, looking Sora up and down. The alpha was dressed as a much more family-friendly pirate this time, with a blouse under his buttoned-up waistcoat and a long black coat. And, Riku noted with no small degree of satisfaction, even though it was incredibly faint now, there was still the hint of his scent lingering on the alpha.

Sora’s eyes glinted and he held up an empty bucket in the shape of a pumpkin. “It’s Halloween, so let’s go trick-or-treating!”

“You can’t be serious,” Riku said, but one look at Sora’s expectant expression showed that he very much _was_. “We can’t; we’re too old.”

“Who said trick-or-treating has an age limit?” Sora asked. “C’mon, it’ll be fun. You’ve never tried it before, right? And I was always bummed that we never got to go together, so I figured, why not just do it now?”

Riku hesitated, and thought back to the pure excitement he had felt as a kid at finally getting his chance to try trick-or-treating. That chance had long passed him by, or so he had thought, but looking at Sora standing there all gung-ho about doing it together so many years after their initial plans fell through had Riku feeling just a bit of that pure excitement once again.

“I don't have anything suitable to wear,” he pointed out, but Sora tutted at him and waggled his finger.

“You dare underestimate me?” he asked grandly. "You're forgetting one very important thing, mate: I'm Captain Sora Hikari." He leant down and picked up a bag that had hitherto been on the floor. “Crewmate Olette told me about this.”

Riku took the proffered bag and peeked inside, surprised to find the pirate outfit that he had tried on the other day. “Is this really…?”

“Well, we _were_ going to go as pirates, right?”

Riku laughed in disbelief, looking from the bag to Sora and back again, and he felt his heart swell at the thoughtfulness of it all. It was silly: Riku was very nearly twenty and had no business feeling thrilled at the prospect of something as childish as trick-or-treating, and yet a grin was slowly making its way to his lips regardless.

“Give me a minute,” he said, closing the door and quickly changing into the outfit, feeling like a little kid all over again. There were no shoes and so Riku just tugged on a normal pair of boots. He tied his hair up in a loose ponytail before tying the bandanna around his head, quickly turning around in front of the mirror to look at the ensemble.

_“My, my, that’s certainly a big smile you’ve got there. What a fearsome pirate you make!”_

Riku laughed, feeling like he had somehow returned to a much simpler time, and opened his door to salute the captain. “You’re insane and no one is going to take us seriously,” he grinned.

Sora held out his hand. “We won’t know until we try!” he said with a wink.

And perhaps Riku shouldn’t have been as surprised as he was when, upon trying their first house and being met with a bemused look from a beta who clearly thought they were mad, Sora launched into a hammy yet charming speech about a little boy who was finally getting to go trick-or-treating with his best friend after years of wrongful separation. Whether the woman was touched by his tale, was sufficiently entertained by it, or just wanted the grown ass ‘pirates’ off of her porch, Riku didn’t know, but it didn’t really matter when she dropped their first two chocolate bars of the evening into the pumpkin bucket.

Admittedly, Sora seemed a little surprised that it had actually worked. But it just spurred him on and he turned to Riku with a conspiratorial smirk. “Yarr, First Mate Riku,” he said in a dreadful approximation of a pirate accent, “Tonight we be takin’ these Radiant Garden landlubbers for all the sweets they’ve got!”

Riku laughed, bringing his hand up in a salute. “Aye aye, Captain!”

And, against absolutely all logic and sense, they did.

As they sat upon the ledge of the tallest fountain in the fountain court that night, partaking in a sweet feast from their now-full bucket and watching as clever lighting turned the water from pink to purple to blue, Riku decided that Halloween just might become his favourite holiday.

“We should watch that film,” the omega said as he chewed on a toffee, “The Disney one with that creepy skeleton.”

“Oh man, you mean _The Black Cauldron_?” Sora asked, popping a _Starburst_ into his mouth. “I swear the Horned King haunted my nightmares for weeks whenever I watched it.”

“Aw, you too afraid to watch it now?” Riku teased.

Sora chuckled. “Nah. Because no matter how terrible the nightmare, as long as I remember you in a skirt, that sweet dream will chase away the nightm- _AH_!” Sora pouted, rubbing the cheek that Riku had just pinched.

“For the last time: it wasn’t a _skirt_ , it was a _pteruges_.”

The wind picked up, the temperature dropping more and more as the winter months drew nearer. Riku shivered, but before any sort of chill could seep under his skin something heavy and warm draped over him. Riku blinked, looking at the coat Sora had put on his shoulders, and the alpha smiled and held out his hand. “Wanna head back?”

Riku smiled back and pulled his boyfriend’s coat closer around him. “Yeah.”

“I guess cuddles can be just as effective for fighting off the Horned King,” Sora reasoned as he helped Riku up.

“I think I can manage that,” Riku chuckled, linking their fingers together and placing a sweet kiss on Sora’s cheek. “Happy Halloween, Sora.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was 18k and I honestly don't know how that happened. Congrats on making it to the end! I will endeavour to make sure future chapters release in a more timely manner and perhaps aren't quite as massive.
> 
> I'm toying with the idea of writing about Riku and Kairi first meeting and becoming friends, so please let me know if that would be of any interest. 
> 
> As always, thank you for reading ^_^
> 
> May your lives be blessed with bountiful SoRiku goodness~


	6. Of Old Friends And New Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riku makes a new friend, and Sora learns a bit more about what Riku was like before they were reunited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _"I will endeavour to make sure future chapters release in a more timely manner and perhaps aren't quite as massive."_  
>  **Narrator:** Alchemist failed in this endeavour.
> 
> Greetings everyone! In this chapter I'm back on my world-building bullshit, but seeing as a lot of my reviews were pleased with the exploration of the social dynamics of this verse and some of you even wanted more beta content, well... I try to give the people what they want? "n.n
> 
> Massive thank you to my wonderful flatmate for beta reading yet another mammoth chapter for me <3
> 
> Shockingly, there is no smut in this chapter, but it probably still deserves a higher rating for Riku's potty mouth. I hope you enjoy this latest instalment!

Riku watched with wide, awed eyes as graceful figures leapt about the stage. White lace dresses flowed like icy rivers and Riku shivered at the beauty of it all. He had left his seat a long time ago, electing to stand and press himself against the railing of the box in order to get as close to the stage and the magic as possible.

The ballet had been his mother’s idea. Ever since they had moved away from Destiny Islands she had been constantly rushed off of her feet with the various social engagements that typically came along with belonging to the upper echelons of society. His father, too, had a lot less time on his hands now that he was no longer running things remotely. Traverse Town was a place that didn’t know the meaning of sleep. Its name derived from the fact that the ‘town’—although its modern day incarnation was more akin to a megacity—was constantly expanding. It was _the_ place to do business, and a recent issue of the _Traverse Town Times_ had boasted about how the city welcomed no fewer than 2.3 million new businesses in the past year alone.

Traverse Town had been established as a trading powerhouse many generations previous, with people from all walks of life meeting and exchanging their goods. The Getsumei family had also sought to cement themselves early on in the town, and they had been headquartered there for so long that they may as well have been part of the furniture. Riku had supposedly been born here, although he had no memory of it. He had only ever known sun and sand and salt, and returning to this place didn’t feel like returning at all.

Buildings towered high in Traverse Town, a far cry from the welcoming houses that dotted the islands. Some were great old structures with carved pillars and Latin inscriptions, others were a jarring juxtaposition: glass things with sharp angles and even sharper people working inside of them conducting _business_. Riku had lived in this place for nearly a year, and even now he still sometimes ended up getting lost. It felt as though the street layouts changed almost daily and Riku was pretty sure that if he were to stand upon the viewing deck of the Traverse Town Tower and look over this sprawling, amorphous mass of a place, then he would physically be able to see its borders continuing their relentless outward expansion.

It was against this hectic backdrop that Kagome had _insisted_ on going to the ballet.

“We really ought to be doing more as a family,” she had argued, having already buttered her husband up for most of the week in order to make him more agreeable. “We simply have no time to ourselves these days. It will soon be Christmas and we all know how frenzied that can be, and of course before that we have Riku’s birthday. So the three of us having a nice evening at the theatre sounds like the perfect way to take a break. And really, darling, it’s _The Nutcracker_. I am quite certain that all three of us shall find something to enjoy with a classic that grand!”

And, despite initially complaining and pouting in the car on the way there on the grounds that ‘ballet is for sissies’, Riku had enjoyed it immensely.

It was as if these fairylike creatures had come from another realm entirely, dancing around on needlepoint and spinning around and around in a flurry of magic. These beings were one with the music, bringing it to life right there on the stage as they hopped and leapt and twirled their way right into Riku’s heart.

“That was awesome!” Riku excitedly proclaimed once the show had ended and they were being driven back to their home. “Did you see how they were on their tip-toes for so long? It was so cool! Can we go to the ballet again?”

Kagome laughed softly, ruffling her son’s hair. “I don’t see why not.”

“I want to do that!” Riku told her, eyes shining with excitement at the prospect of being able to dance with even half the grace and strength as the pretty Sugar Plum Fairy. He could definitely do it if he worked hard! “Can I start ballet lessons?”

Kagome’s hand in his hair stilled and she bit her lip lightly. “Riku, sweetheart…” she began.

“Of course not,” Daichi gruffly cut in, raising an eyebrow at his son. “Why on earth would you want lessons on how to spin around? You can do that already.”

“But not _like that_ ,” Riku insisted, pressing his hands together and looking at his father beseechingly. “Please?”

“No son of mine is going to be prancing about in tights and a leotard,” Daichi said, crossing his arms with an air of finality about him. “You can’t honestly want that. Right, Riku?” It was his turn to look at Riku beseechingly, his icy blue eyes piercing through the eleven-year-old boy.

Riku shrank back in his seat a little bit. Was it really so bad that he had thought the ballerinas were cool? Why _couldn’t_ he want to dress up like that? They had sparkled like diamonds and carried themselves with an awesome mighty grace. They were pretty but powerful snow clouds blowing about the stage and transporting him to an enchanted land.

“N-No…” Riku said instead, eyebrows furrowed. He got the impression that this was the answer that his father wanted. This was the _correct_ answer. It was just like that time when Riku won the taekwondo tournament that his club held and his father took him to Galaxy Toys the next day. “Pick any toy you want, Riku!” he had beamed, but that hadn’t been true at all. What he had wanted was a bright yellow Komory plush. The cute bat cuddly toy was honestly the fluffiest thing Riku had touched, but when he turned around to ask his father for it, clutching the toy close to his chest, the man was regarding him with a pensive expression.

“Um, can I get the purple gigas?” Riku had asked instead, gesturing to the giant poster proclaiming the robot to be the new all-powerful Gigas: Gunner class. Daichi had grinned and told him that _of course_ he could; in fact, he would buy Riku one of each class. They had been gathering dust on his shelf ever since.

Riku did learn something important that day, though: sometimes the answer he wanted wasn’t always right. But that was okay, that was why he had his family. They would guide him and help him out, even if he didn’t always understand _why_ he wasn’t allowed the Komory or allowed to try ballet lessons.

“Besides,” Daichi continued, clearly having seen the way his son’s shoulders had slumped at being told ‘no’, “You wouldn’t even have the time what with homework, your private lessons, and taekwondo practice.”

“Taekwondo is boring though,” Riku muttered.

His father blinked in surprised. “What?”

“I’m the strongest one; I always win,” Riku continued, a slight pout on his lips. “I want to try something new.”

“You find winning to be boring?”

“Yeah, if there’s no challenge to it.” Taekwondo had been pretty hard at first, but once Riku had understood the basics and built himself a solid foundation, no one could even touch him. A win wasn’t satisfying if he wasn’t made to work for it. In fact, the only person who had ever really made him work for every single victory on their tally chart was…

“We’ll get you moved up to the next age group,” his father said decidedly, smiling at Riku reassuringly. “It’s always good to challenge yourself Riku, you should have told me sooner.”

“They already moved me up two months ago,” Riku replied.

“Well then we’ll get you moved up again,” Daichi said as if it were simple.

“I don’t think they’ll allow that, dear,” Kagome cut in. Daichi looked at her and she sighed, running her fingers through her platinum blonde hair. “The next age group up has children that have presented already. Maybe they’ll allow him to train with the betas, but—”

“Did you not just listen to the boy, Kagome? He wants a challenge, as any decent Getsumei should! He’s excelled at the club since day one, so I’m sure we can arrange for him to train with the alphas.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?” Kagome asked, worrying her lip.

“Well he’s going to be an alpha anyway, so I see no harm in exposing Riku to that environment. Maybe it will even kick start his own presenting, right, Riku?” He looked so proud of him in that moment, so excited for his son that Riku couldn’t help the smile that came to his lips. Having his father look at him like that suddenly made bat toys and ballet seem inconsequential.

Riku straightened up. “Right!”

The rest of the journey was filled with his father’s laughter and his mother’s smiles. It was pleasant, to spend time with his parents like this. But when the car was pulling up the driveway and they all clambered out, Riku’s mind drifted back to _The Nutcracker_ and wondered what it would be like to dance with little toy soldiers and battle tiny mice.

His mother was fishing around in her purse for the keys and Riku took the opportunity to pretend that he had shrunk down and that the expansive gardens of their home looked like a jungle to him now. Ferns and flowers that had once seemed so small towered above him, and he experimentally got onto his tiptoes and tried to spin around as the ballerinas had done.

In his mind he was leaping on lily pads and gliding along leafy stems, all to the tune of that mesmerising music.

“Riku!”

“Woah!” Riku snapped out of his reverie mid-twirl and slipped, falling to the ground. He looked up at his father sheepishly, who was shaking his head at him.

“Come inside, I think we’ve had enough ballet for a lifetime,” he said sternly, and Riku bowed his head.

“Yes, dad,” he mumbled, beginning to pick himself up. Before he could get to his feet, however, he caught sight of a strip of white fabric lying innocuously on the driveway. He curiously picked it up. It was a handkerchief beautifully monogrammed with the letters _‘K.G.’_ in tasteful red script. He was about to inform his mother that she had dropped it before he caught sight of another splash of red that had soaked into the cotton. His eyes widened when he recognised what it was.

Blood…

He shook his head, quickly scrambling to his feet. It was probably nothing, just the residue from a paper cut or something. No need to get worried over something like that. Riku placed the handkerchief in the utility room’s wash basket and had already forgotten about it as he hummed the refrain from ‘Waltz of the Flowers’ and leapt his way up the stairs.

Even if he wasn’t allowed ballet lessons, that wasn’t going to stop him from thinking that the Sugar Plum Fairy knew taekwondo.

x~x~x~x~x

As October had bled into November, so too had the creeping cold wormed its way into the air like an unwelcome guest. On occasion there would be a breeze filled with icy tendrils, catching Riku off guard whenever he was making his way to various lecture theatres.

Thankfully he only had a morning lecture on this particular Thursday, which meant that if the omega wished it, he could just go back to his room and bury himself under his blankets. He was very seriously considering doing just that as he stood on the edge of the quad indecisively wondering whether he should actually attempt to be productive and head to the library instead.

He was so consumed with his own thoughts that he didn’t even entertain the possibility that, when a voice said, “Oh, it’s _you_ , thank goodness!”, they could possibly be addressing him. This was quickly rectified the instant a blonde head of hair popped up before his eyes.

Riku blinked as soft lips upturned into an apologetic smile, and the dainty omega before him bowed her head slightly. “I’m so glad I found you again. I’ve really been meaning to apologise for what I said before.”

Riku’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Did he know her? He was about to say that she had clearly gotten the wrong person before his eyes widened at the memory of the altercation he had instigated a couple of weeks ago on this very quad. That loud, brutish alpha, this soft-spoken omega who had requested that Riku let the idiot go, and then…

_“You’re an omega? What a shame.”_

Riku felt tension gather in his shoulders, his fingers twitching with the want to curl into fists at the memory, but he stood firm and tried to brush it off. It wasn’t anything that he hadn’t heard before.

“I said it was fine,” he said, “So you don’t need to apologise.”

“Ah, no, but… you see…” The young woman fiddled with the zipper of her coat. Riku got the feeling that she didn’t approach people all that much. “I believe that you got the wrong idea about what I meant when I said it was a shame. The truth is, I…” she swallowed. “I really wanted to draw you, but I thought that I couldn’t, and I thought it was a shame but instead of thinking it I said it.” She was looking up at him carefully, gauging his reaction, and Riku… honestly didn’t understand even half of her explanation.

“You want to draw me?” he asked, raising a sceptical eyebrow. The blonde omega nodded. Riku sighed. “I don't get it.”

She bit her lip, bowing her head again. “Sorry, I guess I didn’t explain that too well…”

One of those icy winds picked up, dragging across Riku’s skin like frozen claws, and he decided that he didn’t fancy standing around here any longer debating what he was going to do next.

“Do you want to go to a café?” he heard himself asking. The other omega’s eyes widened in surprise at his offer, but her expression couldn’t even begin to come close to the surprise that Riku himself was feeling. He didn’t know why he had asked; it wasn’t his style to start inviting strangers out to cafés, much less strangers who had insulted him. But apparently the ‘insult’ wasn’t so insulting after all… or something.

He still didn’t quite get it, but she was probably just as cold as he was and part of him felt like he should hear her out. If she had gone through the effort of seeking him out just so she could try and explain herself, the least he could do was give her that opportunity. “And you can explain it to me over a hot drink?”

She still appeared to be a little stunned, but after a moment or two she seemed to recover. She brought her hands up to just in front of her chest, touching her fingertips together in a pseudo-prayer like motion as she smiled. “I’d like that,” she nodded. “Thank you.”

Rather than heading to one of the chain cafés, the blonde omega informed him that she knew of a cute little place tucked away down a small side street. Riku could hardly back out now, having been the one to suggest they grab a drink in the first place, so he didn’t particularly mind letting her lead the way.

During the ten-minute walk to their destination he learnt that the young woman’s name was Naminé and that, despite all outward appearances, she was actually in the year above him. She was studying Fine Arts but had been in something of a slump lately, having been unable to come up with a concept she liked enough to run with for the final exhibition that all third year fine arts students had to undertake. And that, supposedly, was where Riku came into the picture.

She refused to divulge any more until they were inside and could talk more comfortably, and before long Riku was peering curiously up at a quaint little café down a street that he had never taken any notice of before now.

‘Magic Brew’, the place was called, according to the little wooden sign swinging in the breeze. A cauldron fashioned to look like a teacup had been etched into the wood, sitting atop a saucer while curls of steam and sparks of magic rose above.

“If you don’t like tea they do sell other drinks,” Naminé assured him.

“I like tea,” Riku assured her in return, and she smiled in response.

“They’re really very good,” she promised, “They always experiment with new flavours and have come up with some truly magical combinations.”

“I’m surprised I’ve never noticed this place before,” he murmured, holding the door open for her. She nodded and slipped through and Riku followed shortly after. After the door had closed behind them and acted as a buffer to the cold, a welcoming warmth wrapped itself around the two omegas as they made their way to a table.

Riku looked about curiously. The place wasn’t overly crowded nor was it empty; it contained just the right amount of people to create an amiable atmosphere as they chatted happily amongst themselves. Great elongated bookshelves lined one of the walls, filled with tomes that looked as though they had been plucked out of a completely different era. Riku moved closer, running his fingertips over the hard spines and noting the slightly musty smell of their yellowed pages. But where a thick layer of dust would have completed the image these books presented, each one of them was clean and clearly well read and well loved. A quick glance about at some of the patrons showed that these books were available for them to peruse at their leisure, and Riku decided that if the tea really was as good as Naminé was promising, he’d make it a point to return here and take a peek at the tales these old pages had to tell.

The lights in this place emitted a soft orange glow reminiscent of firelight, and Riku turned his head when he heard the soft crackle of wood to see an actual fire burning cheerfully within a simple stone hearth at the back of the room.

Instead of chairs this place was littered with plush burgundy pillows and low tea tables. It was an incredibly homely sort of place imbued with a comfortable intimacy that had Riku relaxing and sinking down onto one of the fluffy pillows. He sat cross-legged atop it, reaching for the menu on the table as Naminé took a pillow opposite from him, delicately kneeling on it and adjusting herself a little to find that perfectly comfortable position.

The selection of teas alone was so varied and expansive that Riku felt a little overwhelmed. In the end he selected the House Blend as it seemed the most logical place to start, while Naminé decided on Vanilla Earl Grey. Riku had been the one to place their order, going up to the counter that proudly displayed a wide variety of loose leaf teas in elegant glass jars behind which stood a man so old and wizened as to be almost comical. His hair was a shock of white upon his head, rounded spectacles framing wise eyes while a long beard covered most of the rest of his face, trailing down behind the counter.

It was then that Riku remembered the name of this place, and he had to bite his lip to keep from making some wisecracking compliment about the man’s commitment to playing the part of the wizard who created these brews. The only things he was lacking were a wizard’s hat and a nametag proclaiming his name to be ‘Merlin’.

Before long Riku was back on his pillow nursing a cup of tea served in a cup of fine bone china, a unique pattern lovingly painted onto it. His own held a scene of autumnal leaves, while Naminé’s cup was edged with angels in various stages of flight.

Riku gently blew on the delicate curls of steam coming from his cup before taking a sip. The strong flavour of black tea filled his senses, but it was undercut by something citrusy. It tasted bright and malty, and as it slid down his throat he found himself laughing softly. “It tastes good. It’s been a while since I’ve been somewhere like this.”

Naminé angled her head to the side just slightly, blonde hair shifting against her shoulder. “Did you used to visit a lot of tea rooms?”

Riku nodded. “Yeah, with my mother, but…” he sighed. Why was it that so many of his fond and happy memories could always be explained as having crumbled into dust with the phrase, _‘But then I presented’_? Riku hated that. One event shouldn’t have been able to hold that much power over him. One event had no right to so dramatically and catastrophically alter every single aspect of his life.

Naminé waited patiently for him to continue, but he never did. Instead he took another sip and said, “I think she’d really like this place…”

“Well now you can show it to her the next time she comes to visit,” Naminé smiled, not noticing the way Riku gripped his cup tighter at her suggestion.

“So what were you saying earlier?” Riku asked, deftly switching the topic of conversation away from his mum and reminding the both of them why they were actually here in the first place. “About your art exhibition?”

“Ah, right!” Naminé carefully placed her cup down atop her saucer and looked at Riku seriously. “As I said, all third year students display their artwork in a grand exhibition at the end of the year.” She paused for a moment. “Well, we also have a preview viewing around the beginning of the new year, but that’s not really- ah, sorry, I’m rambling.” She laced her fingers together nervously, bowing her head. “Sorry, I don’t do things like this often…”

She took a deep breath and looked back at him. “I was really struggling to come up with a concept for my exhibition. I’ve known about it since my first year, and I had always assumed that everything would fall into place and I would be struck with inspiration at some point during my degree, but I never was. I tried so hard to think of something over summer so that I could make decent progress before the new academic year. A lot of my peers did just that, and I did come up with something, but…”

“But you weren’t really feeling it?” Riku ventured a guess, and Naminé nodded.

“My old concept required me to find alpha subjects. The guy that was with me on _that_ day, he was one of them.”

“That charming alpha had an interest in art?” Riku asked dryly. Naminé cringed.

“No… which is why it went south pretty quickly,” she admitted. “I told him that I was only interested in him out of artistic curiosity, but then he wouldn’t leave me alone and…”

“And that’s where I came in.” Riku placed his cup down, tracing the rim with his fingers as he tried to figure out what was actually going on that day. “So, when you said it was ‘a shame’, you _did_ mean it was a shame that I wasn’t an alpha, but… only because that meant you couldn’t draw me?”

Naminé nodded, and Riku snorted. Well. That was certainly a new twist on an old sentiment.

Suddenly Naminé’s eyes were practically glowing blue fire as she leant forward and placed her hands on the table, looking at Riku with such intensity that he ended up scooting back on his pillow just a touch. “But I decided that it doesn’t matter! I’ll just change it all!”

Riku blinked at her. “What?”

“I had always assumed that everything would fall into place and I would be struck with inspiration at some point during my degree,” she repeated her earlier words. “And I never was… until I saw you.”

“I…” Riku’s mouth worked uselessly, unable to come up with anything other than yet another, “What?”

Naminé reached out and took one of his hands in two of her own. “I want—no, _need_ —to change my concept,” she explained, voice imbued with a passion that Riku hadn’t heard from her thus far. “And at the centre of that is you.” Her soft lips were pulled up in a smile of nervous excitement, porcelain cheeks pinking slightly as she said, “Riku, I think you’re my muse.”

Riku felt his own cheeks heating up and he pulled his hand out of her hold, running fingers through his hair as he laughed shakily for lack of anything better to do. What was he supposed to say in response to that? He was a muse? “Um, I,” he struggled to find the right words. “I’m flattered,” he settled on eventually, feeling very much like his every movement was being observed by the smaller omega who was still leaning very far over their table. “But I didn’t really do anything all that impressive.”

“You put that alpha in his place so quickly that he didn’t even realise it was happening,” Naminé insisted, not allowing Riku to make any modest excuses. “You’re strong.”

Riku wanted to contest that, wanted to tell her that he had been searching for a very specific kind of strength and felt like he was failing miserably. But now that she had finally gotten around to telling him the truth of why they were sat here drinking tea, Naminé was much more talkative and continued without giving him a chance to say anything. “You’re so tall and cool and gorgeous and completely composed in dangerous situations and I just,” her fingertips twitched. “I _have_ to draw you. I want to try and capture that. _Please_ , Riku, would you be the subject of my new concept?”

When Riku woke up that morning the last place he would have expected to end up was inside some indie tearoom sat on a cushion with an enthusiastic art student claiming that he had inadvertently become her muse. Her deluge of compliments had left him speechless, his face burning hotter than the fire flickering brightly in the hearth.

“I-Isn’t it too late for you to change everything so drastically?” he asked.

“Sure it will put me behind everyone else, but I’m confident that I can catch up!” And she truly believed that. Riku could see it plainly written on her face.

“ _If_ I agree to this, what is it exactly that you need from me?”

“Your permission for me to display any pieces I do in the exhibition, firstly. And then… if you just let me observe you, and sometimes pose for me occasionally, or photos are fine as well! That sort of thing.” After her earlier outburst, Naminé seemed to shrink back a little, suddenly overcome with shyness. She picked up her teacup and took a long sip, staring into its amber depths.

Riku took in the features of her slightly creased brow and pursed lips, noting how her shoulders held a deep tension. He wondered what it had taken for Naminé not only to approach him, but to apologise and then make her request. In this intimate little tearoom down a small unnoticed side street, this omega had opened up to him and genuinely wanted to put _him_ at the heart of the culmination of her degree. He may not have fully understood why, or even how, but maybe he didn’t need to. All he had to understand was that he was her inspiration and it would be a lie to say that this completely unexpected turn of events hadn’t left him just a tiny bit thrilled.

“All right,” he agreed. “As long as it doesn’t get in the way of my own studies, I don’t mind being your… muse,” he said that last word tentatively, trying it out. He didn’t think he’d ever fully adjust to being someone’s muse. Hell, he didn’t think that he was particularly interesting to draw, but he wasn’t the artist here.

Naminé’s eyes lit up at his words, hands coming up once more in that sweet prayer-like motion. “Thank you,” she said, the simple words bright with relief and happiness.

“Well, it’s not every day you hear a confession like that,” Riku admitted, tone recovering its customary teasing edge and ego well and truly stroked. “So it’s not as if I could say ‘no’.”

“I won’t let you down,” she promised. “I really feel like my art is about it evolve.”

“Then let’s do our best to make this exhibition of yours the best,” Riku replied, the edges of his lips quirked up in a half smile.

“Right!”

x~x~x~x~x

“An omegas’ day out?” Kairi repeated, eyebrows practically disappearing right off of her forehead with how high they were raised. “ _You_?”

Riku rolled his eyes. “Is it really that hard to believe?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Kairi replied without hesitation.

“Fair enough,” Riku acquiesced immediately. Even _he_ was struggling to believe it, and yet he had sort of been the architect for this whole thing. And it had happened like this:

After Naminé confessed to Riku that he was her muse, and Riku denying that he spent any measure of time simpering over this fact, the two of them had connected on Kingstagram. A couple of days later Riku decided that he didn’t want to wait any longer to try the orange and cinnamon tea he had nearly opted for the first time he had visited Magic Brew and, given that Sora had sporting commitments and Kairi preferred sugary coffee abominations that contained double the recommended daily calorie intake, he had asked Naminé if she’d like to accompany him.

Naminé had said yes, she’d love to, and thanked him for the invite. On the way there they had bumped into a frazzled Olette with her nose buried in an incomprehensibly dense tome on cell biology. Riku had asked if she was okay; Olette had replied that she needed to give a presentation on—and her words here had sounded incredibly impressive but both Riku and Naminé questioned whether the brunette omega was speaking an actual human language—and that she didn’t feel the least bit prepared.

Riku had suggested she join them for tea and take a moment to relax. Olette had gratefully agreed. He then formally introduced Olette and Naminé and forty minutes later after stimulating conversation and having conquered a little more of Magic Brew’s extensive menu—Naminé had selected a blackcurrant and liquorice concoction while Olette chose a candy floss creation playfully entitled Cotton Candtea—Riku had somehow found himself roped into a day out with his two new brew buddies.

An “omegas’ day out” was what they had called it, and Riku hadn’t exactly agreed so much as had his involvement decided for him. He was the unwitting linchpin of this impromptu and unlikely omega trio, and he honestly couldn’t think of any decent reason to refuse them beyond his general social incompetence. But clearly he must have done _something_ right if they wanted to hang out with him some more.

“It’s just, you’ve never really had omega friends before,” Kairi continued, before quickly revising that statement with, “Actually, you didn’t have _any_ friends before. Aside from me, obviously.”

“I have friends,” Riku argued pointlessly.

“Name _one_.” Riku opened his mouth to reply but Kairi quickly said, “That _isn’t_ Sora.”

Riku shut his mouth.

“But you’ve been a lot more approachable lately and your social circle is steadily growing. I guess I’m just—”

“Jealous?” Riku suggested.

“ _Surprised_ ,” Kairi said through a snort of laughter, lightly shoving Riku’s leg as he was lazily sprawled out on her bed. They had initially gathered in her room for their customary B-movie viewing, a sacred tradition in which the two of them would spend the better part of seventy minutes being snarky bitches, but they had been temporarily distracted from this week’s pick given recent developments. “Why would I be jealous?” she asked with a haughty confidence. “I know you like me the best.”

“I don’t know…” Riku said uncertainly, adopting an expression of faux contemplation. “I knew Sora _way_ before you, so he has to be a higher rank by default. Then, well, Naminé _did_ call me her muse—” and maybe Riku did still preen just a little bit at that—“So she also gets a high score. And then there’s Olette, who not only helped me out with Halloween outfits but is honestly inspirational with how hard she’s working on her degree. But hey,” he smirked teasingly, “Fourth place isn’t so bad, Kai.”

“Take that back immediately or I will shove you off of this bed,” Kairi threatened, valiantly battling to keep the grin from her lips.

“I’d like to see you try,” Riku challenged.

They stared at each other for a long moment.

“Admit I’m in first place,” said Kairi.

“I’ll admit you’re first place for most persistent and annoying.”

“Shut up; you love me.”

“ _Do_ I, though?” It was then that Kairi slid her hands under Riku’s back in a bid to literally flip him off of the bed. Riku finally cracked and started laughing. “Okay, okay! _You’re_ my best friend so just—Kairi I swear if you actually tip me over the edge I’m taking you with me!”

Kairi was laughing, too, but she was absolutely certain that Riku would make good on his ‘threat’ and so pulled away. Riku shook his head and chuckled, sitting up so that he could lightly shove her shoulder. After their laughter had quieted and both had calmed down, Kairi let out a thoughtful hum.

“An omegas’ day out, then.”

“Yeah.” Riku shifted. “I was thinking,” he cleared his throat, “How about you and Sora do something similar? Have an alphas’ day out.”

Kairi’s eyebrows furrowed. “What? Me and Sora?”

“Why not? You wanted to get to know him better, right? And,” Riku scratched the back of his neck, looking over the pink plaid pattern of Kairi’s duvet, “It would be nice if the two of you became friends.”

Sora and Kairi were the two most important people to Riku. The two alphas had shared a moment over their mutual love of Halloween costumes so there was definitely civil ground to build on. He would honestly love for the two of them to get along.

Kairi seemed to understand this sincere wish of his as she sent him a soft smile. “All right,” she agreed, “I’ll ask him.” She reached for her laptop, clicking through various things to pull up their chosen film for the week. “An alphas’ day out, huh? Could be fun.”

“Yeah. The two of you can talk about alpha things like how much you like punching people and barbecuing and punching people _while_ you barbecue during a robust discussion on DIY,” Riku teased.

“Oh of course. I assume while we do that, you omegas will be doing each other’s make-up and talking about how much you love babies and fawning over cute alphas?”

“Only the _cutest_ alphas,” Riku assured her.

They both started snickering.

“So, what are we watching this week?” he asked.

“A film called _I Married The Minotaur_ ,” Kairi replied.

“That sounds atrocious.”

“Doesn’t it? I love it already.”

“Same.”

x~x~x~x~x

At the very heart of Radiant Garden’s shopping district was a grand mall that spanned two floors and contained most anything a patron could wish for. Riku and Kairi had steadily been working their way through the various eateries that the food court had to offer, but aside from this and the little vintage shop that sold old VHS tapes and often served as inspiration for what the latest low-budget movie on their list should be, Riku hadn’t felt compelled to check out the rest of the mall.

Today, it seemed, would be the day that this changed. “We want to start this off properly, and every good omegas’ day out involves shopping!” Olette had informed him, which is why the three omegas were currently walking along the marbled floors of this most hallowed of Radiant Garden’s shopping hotspots.

They had initially met up at the central square. Naminé was an adorable picture of winter grace in her white faux fur coat and matching mittens, while Olette was happily sticking to an autumnal palette with her bright orange puffer jacket and hand-knitted bobble hat. Riku, more out of sheer habit at this point, was in his much less practical black leather jacket. Olette had taken one look at it and declared that she knew the perfect shop for them to start with.

That shop, Riku was now finding out as his companions came to a halt outside of it, was one that specialised in omega clothing.

“I know you said that you don’t really wear omega clothes,” Olette said, holding up her hands in an effort placate the sole male of their group who was looking incredibly dubious and about ready to bolt. “But there’s something I’ve been wanting to show you ever since we went to that costume shop. It won’t take long, I promise.”

Naminé was looking between the two of them before her eyes came to settle upon Riku. “Is everything all right?” she asked, and Riku hesitated before shaking his head to try and clear it.

At the end of the day, it was just a shop. Granted, not the sort of shop he would _ever_ frequent, and in fact often made a point to avoid, but a shop nevertheless. Was he really so pathetic that he needed to be gently coaxed into it? The three of them had already come all this way and at this point, Riku may as well just commit.

“I’m fine,” Riku reassured her, taking a deep breath and shoving his hands into his pockets. “So,” he turned to Olette, “What did you want to show me?”

Olette’s green eyes sparkled. “Follow me,” she hummed, and Riku did.

“It’s a sweater,” Riku deadpanned when, after winding their way through the various clothes racks, Olette let out a happy hum and held said garment up.

“Not just _any_ sweater,” Olette stressed, “This is an Atsuyoi sweater.”

Riku couldn’t help but think that the brunette omega sounded very much like she had been approached by sweater sponsors at some point and was now head of sales. “Atsu… what now?”

“Oh, I own three of those,” Naminé piped up, running her fingers gently along the fabric of the sweater’s sleeve. “They’re really warm.”

“And absolutely _essential_ for any omega during winter,” Olette continued her sales pitch. “Right, Nams?”

Naminé’s pale cheeks took on a pretty pink hue at the impromptu nickname, and she nodded shyly.

Riku looked back over to the sweater. “It looks pretty normal to me,” he remarked, before pausing. Actually, it did look _incredibly_ normal. No lace, no hot pink, no sequins covering every inch of it. Just a simple, elegant sweater.

Riku wasn’t quite sure what to do with this information, except from feel a very faint creeping suspicion that he may have been more than a little foolish in some regards.

“They're actually very clever,” Olette explained. “This fabric works to regulate your body temperature. It gathers the kinetic energy from your skin’s moisture and converts it to heat. And because it’s so tightly knit, this heat is efficiently retained and keeps you nice and toasty.”

“It was doing all of that?” Naminé asked, and even Riku had to admit that it sounded kind of out there. Still, he reached out to take the sweater from Olette and his eyes widened and just how _soft_ it felt beneath his fingertips.

“Feels good, right?” Olette smiled, and Riku could only nod.

It took no coaxing whatsoever to get Riku into the changing rooms. He tugged this seemingly magical sweater over his head and smoothed it out. It was snug, hugging the contours of his torso flatteringly. But aside from just looking good, it somehow felt amazing. The material was almost downy to the touch, a soft and welcoming embrace like being enveloped in angel’s wings.

Had his skin always been this sensitive? No, that couldn’t be it. It wasn’t as if Riku whiled away the hours nuzzling the various garments in his wardrobe. So then it must be that omega clothing was just a whole new level of lush that he had arbitrarily decided he was too good for.

“I’m an idiot,” he said to his reflection in the full-body mirror. He rested his forehead against it and sighed, the hot breath escaping his lips and forming a steamy condensation on the surface. “Why was I so against this?” Had Riku really just been needlessly avoiding clothing that was both stylish _and_ practical?

He chuckled humourlessly. He had long ago smashed the average omega height to stand tall at one hundred and eighty one centimetres. He had trained tirelessly, pouring his sweat and even some blood into gaining his brown belt in jujitsu, and had no intentions of stopping even once he was finally worthy of his black belt. And rarely, if ever, had words such as ‘yielding’, ‘agreeable’, and ‘meek’ ever been applied to him. In many ways Riku was a walking example of how stereotypes were complete and utter bullshit and yet here he was, having a mild existential crisis in the changing rooms of an omega clothes shop at the dawning realisation that he had internalised some very twisted stereotypes of his own and had been letting them dictate his life choices to some extent.

Even if they were silly little life choices like where to buy a damn sweater.

“Riku? Everything okay in there?” he heard Olette calling.

“Should I get you a different size?” he heard Naminé asking.

“Ah, sorry, I’m fine,” Riku assured them, pulling the curtain back and smiling a little shyly at the way the two young women gasped delightedly and began showering him with compliments.

“It fits you so well!”

“It really highlights the definition of your arms.”

“Doesn’t it? I’m beginning to suspect you just look good in anything,” Olette laughed before turning to Naminé. “I can definitely see why you wanted to snatch him up as your model.”

“I’m still so thankful that he said yes. I was so nervous about asking…”

“Well I’m glad you did. Thanks to that, all three of us are here now.” She turned back to regard Riku before saying, “So what do you think, Nams? The black looks good, but should we get him to try a different colour?”

The blonde nodded. “I think he might suit yellow.”

“Yellow? Really? You don’t think that would wash him out? I was thinking blue. Ah, but maybe he’d look cute in pink.”

“Woah, wait a second,” Riku finally decided that it was time to intervene, resting a hand on his hip. “What am I, some sort of dress up doll for the two of you?”

They at least had the decency to look a little sheepish. Only a little, though.

“Do you like the sweater?” Olette asked.

“Yeah,” Riku admitted honestly. “I want to buy it.”

Olette grinned. “So then you should trust us!”

Naminé nodded determinedly by her side. “We won’t lead you astray,” she promised.

Riku couldn’t be certain that Naminé technically kept that promise as the three of them exited the shop laden with bags. Certainly they had been led astray from the path of economic sense, but after Riku trying on a yellow sweater had quickly become the fan favourite Olette had excitedly turned to Naminé and asked her what colour palette her keen artistic eye would recommend for her.

Riku was too scared to look and see how much time they had spent in the place (they had certainly spent enough money in there); all he knew was that it was filled with bright pastel colours and comfy sweaters and leggings with cute prints and all manner of other things that Riku was absolutely not qualified to advise on, but that didn’t stop his two new friends from eagerly asking for his opinion on their clothing choices all the same.

As they walked around the mall and ambled in and out of shops, it was striking just how many retailers seemed to think the month of November to be utterly inconsequential. Now that Halloween was behind them they were free to focus on the next big event: Christmas. Some particularly voracious shops were already getting into the holiday spirit, their windows decked out in tinsel and promising some sweet Christmas sales. It all seemed rather premature to Riku, for whom Christmas was hardly the most wonderful time of the year. Given the chance he would skip the month of December entirely.

Olette and Naminé had wandered into a cute little jewellery boutique and Riku stood outside, glaring at a grinning elf on a big poster advertising some upcoming family-friendly Christmas flick. He sighed; he already felt Christmassed out and they had barely put a dent in November.

He watched as a couple of betas carrying a long tube wandered over to the film poster and assessed the bare wall next to it. Before long one was wiping down the wall while the other opened the tube and unfurled yet another poster. The pair worked quickly and efficiently, sticking the large poster up in a matter of minutes before moving on. Riku’s eyes widened when he saw what this one was.

The poster depicted a woman decked out in a dress of brilliant white, so pure and crisp that it almost looked as if snow itself had fashioned it. She held herself en pointe, with her other leg extending back gracefully at a near-perfect ninety degree angle. And in her hands she held up a small, beautifully carved nutcracker.

 _‘Witness the magic of The Nutcracker at Radiant Garden’s Bastion Theatre this year!’_ the poster proclaimed, listing the available dates for booking.

Riku hadn’t even realised that he’d moved until he was reaching out, gently running his fingers along the ornate gold lettering that they had used to emphasise the ballet’s title.

This, too, had been something he had irrationally resented for many years. He had only really told Kairi about his interest in ballet last year, and even then he had attempted to play it down. His eyes flicked to the show dates and he wondered if he should book it, even if it meant going on his own. Would it be just as magical now as it had been back then? Or would it be marred just like the memory, overtaken by stern looks and bloodied handkerchiefs?

God, the thought of going to see this with his parents again… hell, the thought of the three of them doing _anything_ together like a normal functional family almost seemed funny at this point. It was certainly impossible, if nothing else.

“Are you thinking about getting tickets?”

Riku jumped at the sound of Olette’s voice, not having heard her approaching. Both her and Naminé were looking at the poster with interest.

“O-Oh no, I was just… just looking.”

“Do you like ballet?” Naminé asked.

Riku shrugged. “I like watching it sometimes. And the music is cool, I suppose.”

“Have you ever tried it?”

Riku started laughing. “What? No way. Don’t be silly.”

“What’s silly about it?”

Olette’s question was asked with such a serious tone of voice that Riku immediately stopped laughing. The two young women were looking at him curiously, and Riku found that he couldn’t quite meet their gazes head on.

“Well, just think about it,” Riku explained, folding his arms across his chest a little defensively. “Someone like me prancing about in tights and a leotard? It’d be ridiculous.”

“I think you’d look good,” Naminé said quietly. She shrank back a little bit at the incredulous look Riku shot at her for the comment. “I-I mean… I used to do ballet, so I have a good idea of what makes a good dancer. And you definitely have the athleticism to be able to do it; I think your body would lend itself really well to ballet.” She swallowed nervously at Riku’s lack of response. “Ah, sorry, did I… say something wrong?”

Riku glanced once more at the poster, then back to Naminé. “You used to do ballet?” he asked eventually.

“Yes, but I wasn’t very good at it. I preferred drawing, and my teacher was very strict.”

“You should give it a go,” Olette said decidedly. “You’ve always wanted to try it, right? I mean, I assume that’s what Kairi was talking about when we were at the Halloween party.”

Riku stared at her. “You remembered that?” Olette just grinned in response. “….you don’t think it’s dumb or stupid?”

“Why would I? If you want to do something, just go ahead and do it.”

And then the conversation moved on. That was it; no labouring the point, no fanfare, just Olette saying that she wanted to check out a bookshop and the three of them leaving the ballet poster behind as they began travelling to their new destination.

Riku didn’t particularly need anything in the bookshop, and so he stuck to the front of the store and idly looked over the various magazines on sale there. He recognised a few of them, especially the fitness ones that promised magical training regimens. Funnily enough, a lot of the regimens _weren’t_ magical after all.

His eyes lingered for a long moment on _Alpher_ , a magazine aimed at female alphas that he had seen Kairi reading before. This month’s issue featured a blue-haired alpha woman on the cover, her bright blue eyes practically smouldering through the camera.

> _‘ **AN AFTERNOON WITH AQUA** : As she prepares to enter the exciting world of fatherhood, one of the biggest names in film reveals all! From career success to finding the perfect mate, nothing’s off limits during our Afternoon With Aqua!’_

A couple of issues away from _Alpher_ sat the thick glossy issue of _Omega_ —stylised as **Ω** **M** E **G** A and consequently referred to as **Ω** **MG** —the most popular magazine for ‘all things omega’. _Ω_ _MG_ was something of a household name, a publication that had been in circulation for so long that even without ever having read a single issue, Riku felt like he knew it well. In bold, elegant script this month’s edition of _Ω_ _MG_ featured topics such as: _‘ **BETAS DO IT BETTER** : why more omegas are choosing a beta mate’_, _‘ **Winter Is Coming** and these cool fashion tips will have people **BOWING** before your style!’_, and, **_‘42 Sexy Ways To Please Your Alpha_** _: so **HOT** you’ll get **TURNED ON** just from **READING** them!’_

Riku blinked. Were there… were there _really_ forty-two ways? He scoffed and rolled his eyes, only moving to grab the magazine just so he could scoff and roll his eyes at it some more.

The pages were thick and glossy and the whole thing smacked of premium quality. As Riku skimmed through he paused for a moment when he found the article on betas, quickly scanning through a couple of paragraphs to see what these omegas who had decided to take a beta mate had to say during the interview.

> _Betas Do It Better! _
> 
> Betas. They are the calm, collected individuals who make up the largest single nature group in our society. Since the collapse of most alpha-centric monarchies and the rise of more democratic systems, betas have long been the ones forming governments, the world leaders who shape our lives. And lately it seems that betas have been winning not just political votes, but the hearts of many omegas! Beta/Omega couples are nothing new, of course, but they seem to have become increasingly common in this modern day and age. We sat down with several omegas who have either taken a beta mate or are considering it to truly understand just why betas do it better!
> 
> **Intimacy**
> 
> “For me, being with a beta just feels incredibly intimate. Whenever I was with an alpha partner they would always be able to tell when something was bothering me due to my scent. But one thing I noticed was that, while an alpha would always attempt to remedy whatever the problem was, they never really tried to _understand_. It’s one thing to know that I need to be held and to hold me, but they never asked _why_ I may have felt that particular way. Betas don’t have the advantage of being able to pick up on the nuances of my scent, so they have to work a bit harder and take in more cues. They might be able to sense that something is wrong but not immediately know how to remedy this. The result is just better communication. My beta mate takes a real interest in _understanding_ the problem, not just skipping to the solution. For me this has led to a relationship far more fulfilling than anything I had with an alpha.”
> 
> **Equality**
> 
> “This might sound odd, but when I started dating my beta partner and he offered to clean up after I’d cooked us dinner, I nearly fell off of my chair! Maybe I just had a bad run with dating douchebag alphas, but none of them had _ever_ offered to do something like that before. It was at that moment that I realised, ‘Oh wow, okay, so this really is a different dynamic.’ It just seemed more equal, I guess? I never thought I’d find a partner who was not only fine with splitting chores, but _insisted_ on it. I always used to spend so much time arguing with my alpha ex about him picking up a duster every once in a while but now not only do I not have to spend time arguing, I also don’t have to spend as long doing everything by myself! This just means I have more time to spend with my partner. Omegas, trust me, if you’re sick of all those ‘traditional’ alphas out there, give betas a go!”
> 
> **Sex**
> 
> “I know that this experience is rather personal to me, but due to some bad events that happened when I was a child, alphas always scared me. They’re often so loud and aggressive, and betas are much more level headed in comparison. Even when it came to sex, there was always this sort of aggressive intensity whenever I was with an alpha. With betas it’s just completely different. It’s not that sex is less intense, but it’s often a lot less ravenous and much softer. I guess the way I try and explain it to my friends who don’t get why I’d prefer betas is that with an alpha you’ll often get rough, passionate fucking, but with a beta you’ll get slow, intense love-making. But I guess the ideal is an alpha or beta who can do both of those things, huh?”
> 
> “Oh my god has anyone talked about the sex yet?! I don’t know if betas feel insecure and feel like they have a point to prove because we all know that alphas are kinda infamous for their sexual prowess, but whatever it is betas are _amazing_! Trust me, I was dubious at first. Betas aren’t as, ah, ‘well endowed’ as alphas and as someone who _very much_ enjoys alphas, I didn’t think a beta could possibly do it for me. But oh was I _wrong_. Size really doesn’t count for much in comparison to skill. My current partner once made me orgasm so many times in one night I passed out. And I’m not talking about heat sex; this is regular sex! Sometimes I think they must be trying to overcompensate for something but hey, if it means more orgasms for me, I’m totally okay with this!”

Riku continued, flipping through the pages and being met with colourful photo spreads and advice columns and horoscopes. And then he found it.

 _‘42 Sexy Ways To Please Your Alpha!’_ the page proclaimed in large, loud font. Riku bit his lip and cast a furtive glance around himself. He’d just have a quick peek. A quick peek and a quick laugh at whatever silly suggestions the magazine had.

> **1.) Use Your Words**
> 
> In any relationship, communication is key! And communication can also be a very sexy key. Whether you prefer the art of the sext or whispering your sexy desires into your alpha’s ear, let your alpha know how much you want them and detail _exactly_ what it is that you’d like to do to them and what you want them to do to you. Many alphas agree that there is nothing hotter than an omega who knows what they want, so be sure to let them know what _you_ want to drive them wild!
> 
> **2.) Mystery Is Sexy**
> 
> Mystery is the energy that turns us on! Keep your alpha coming back for more by cultivating a sense of mystery about you. Master the art of coy aloofness, make sure that you aren’t always available, and keep your pretty lips shut! Little half-truths and keeping details vague will have your alpha desperate to solve the sexy puzzle that is you!
> 
> **3.) The Sensual Salmon**
> 
> An advanced sexual technique, what you’ll want to do is procure a fillet of salmon (raw, preferably unsmoked) and use it to gently rub along—

“Oh, there you are,” Naminé’s soft voice chimed in, and Riku yelped and nearly jumped out of his skin. With the speed of a cheetah with something to hide, Riku quickly flipped to a random page within the magazine and turned to her with wide eyes and a bright red face.

“N-Naminé! Y-Yeah, here I am.”

She looked at him curiously for a moment before looking at the magazine in his hands. “‘What your manicure says about you’,” she read aloud, and Riku looked down to see that it did indeed seem as though he had been reading this particular article. Naminé took one look at Riku’s very much _not_ manicured hands and nails and sent him yet another curious look.

“I was just, ah, trying to understand the, um… the theory behind manicures.”

_…what?_

Riku cringed; was that seriously the best he could come up with? Still, he supposed it was better to spout crap about manicures than admit he was searching for ways to make Sora just as thirsty as he was.

“The theory?” Naminé asked.

“Well, you know, you’re an artist. So you must know that various styles mean certain things. And seeing as I’ve never had a manicure before I guess I figured I’d see what the manicures of people who _do_ get them say about them.” Really, that whole ‘explanation’ was a master class in bullshit and Riku was actually mildly impressed with himself. Sadly, Naminé decided to focus in on a certain part of said bullshit, that is, the only part of it that _wasn’t_ bullshit.

“You’ve never had a manicure before?”

Warning bells started going off in Riku’s head. “Ah, well…”

“Sorry for the hold up,” Olette chose then to pop up, clutching a new carrier bag full of books. “What are you two talking about?”

“Riku was saying that he’s never had a manicure before but he’s interested in them,” Naminé explained.

The warning bells started ringing louder.

“I’m interested in the _theory_ ,” Riku tried to stress, “Not in actually getting one.”

“But I think it’s actually a good idea to get one,” Olette said after considering it for all of half a second.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Naminé smiled. “It’s been a while since I’ve had my nails done.”

“And it’s the perfect omegas’ day out activity,” Olette hummed. “Great idea, Riku!”

“No, that’s really not what I meant,” the male omega tried to protest, but such protests fell on deaf ears as he was excitedly ushered out of the shop.

Riku was too busy feeling sorry for himself to listen to whatever his companions were talking about. Instead he pulled out his phone and let out a long-suffering sigh as he quickly typed out a message. He couldn’t help but wonder if omegas’ days out were supposed to be this exhausting.

x~x~x~x~x

“Yes!” Sora cheered, raising his hands into the air. One of them was still clutching the plastic gun that he had just used to blast his way to victory in _Hero’s Duty_.

Kairi pouted beside him, placing her own gun back in place and sombrely regarding the screen displaying _‘Player One: WINNER’_. “What happened? One second I was in the lead and then…”

“Then the Cy-Bugs went apeshit,” Sora chuckled.

Kairi snorted. “Exactly.”

“Well I had to regain _some_ of my pride after you destroyed me at _Sugar Rush_.”

That brought the smile back to Kairi’s lips. “You _were_ spectacularly bad at that.”

Kairi hadn’t really known what to expect when it came to an alphas’ day out with Sora. This was actually rather fitting because Sora admitted that he hadn’t the slightest clue what to expect when it came to said day out with Kairi. For the most part the two of them were unknown quantities to each other, but they were both here for Riku’s sake and were determined to give it a good go. How they had decided that the best way for them to try and connect was at the arcade, Kairi wasn’t quite sure, but so far everything seemed to be going rather well.

Sora was a pleasant young man, was up for giving any of the games a go, and had even cracked a couple of jokes that had Kairi laughing harder than she’d have thought. There was just _something_ about the other alpha that could immediately put one at ease. Maybe it was his easy-going smile or bright personality. Whatever it was, Kairi certainly had a better understanding of just why her best friend was so taken with him, and all they had really been doing was challenging each other to various arcade games.

They had initially started off at the back of the arcade where they kept a bunch of retro _Classic Kingdom_ games from back in the day. After getting bored of being trampled to death by a giant or endlessly serving food to perpetually ravenous carnival goers, the two alphas decided to partake in a friendly competition. They decided to play best out of five with any of the arcade’s games being fair play; the loser would have to buy the winner a drink. Kairi had secured victory in _Sugar Rush_ and Sora had done the same with _Hero’s Duty_. She went on to beat him in _Dance Dance Revolution_ , but then he once more evened up the tally by gaining a miraculous score of over 12 million points in _Verum Rex: Beat of Lead_.

In the end it all came down to a good old-fashioned game of _Pac-Man_.

“Stupid colour-changing ghosts,” Kairi muttered on her way up the stairs to the next floor where there was a diner. Sora hummed happily by her side, a slight skip in his step over being the ultimate victor.

“You were a worthy opponent until the very end, Kairi,” he grinned, and the auburn haired alpha found that she wasn’t _quite_ as annoyed as she wanted to be at having lost.

“I’ll beat you next time,” she promised.

Sora just grinned even wider. “I’ll look forward to it!”

“What do you want to drink?” she asked once they had entered the diner. Sora regarded the menu for a moment before saying that he’d have a sea salt slushie. He went and secured a table for the two of them as Kairi went and handed over her hard earned munny for their drinks. Just as she was sitting down at their table, Sora taking a grateful sip from his slushie, Kairi felt her phone vibrating in her pocket.

She moved to pull it out and saw that she had a new message from Riku.

 _Today at 3:14 pm  
_**Riku** : The omegas’ day out has gotten out of hand :/ Send aid.

She couldn’t help but laugh.

“Everything all right?” Sora asked as he cocked his head to the side.

“Yes, everything is fine. Riku sounds like he’s having fun,” she replied, showing him the message.

Sora chuckled fondly. “Aw man, I really wanna know what’s going on now.” He carefully regarded Kairi as she began typing up her response. Once sent, she glanced up to see that bright blue gaze practically boring into her. She raised an eyebrow in question. “The two of you… you’re really close, huh?”

Kairi nodded. “We are. Riku has been my best friend for years now.”

She didn’t miss the way Sora’s hands tightened around his slushie cup, his lips uncharacteristically pulled down at the edges. “Damn it,” he sighed, “I missed so much…”

This was the first time that Kairi had seen Sora truly upset over something. Aside from the very first time they had met, Sora had always seemed so carefree. So to see an actual frown on his face now was utterly alien.

“If it’s any consolation,” she began tentatively, “Whenever Riku talked about you, he always seemed so happy.” _‘And sad,’_ she recalled, although she kept that part to herself.

Granted, the times that Riku had talked about Sora were few and far between. Sora always seemed to be relegated to the past, and she knew that Riku had done his best to forget his past and the islands and Sora. And yet despite stubbornly locking it all away, sometimes he would slip up and mention his childhood friend with a gentle smile on his face. “When he spoke about you, well… he’d never use that tone to discuss anything else.”

This, at least, seemed to perk Sora up somewhat. “Yeah?” he asked, and Kairi was shocked at how _hopeful_ he looked in that moment. Was Sora not aware of the extent to which Riku was completely head over heels for him? Kairi could see it plainly, but it seemed as if the brunette alpha was hiding a number of insecurities behind that sunny grin.

She nodded. “Honestly, sometimes it would make me a little jealous. I would think things like, ‘What’s so great about him?’ But now, having finally met you, I think I’m beginning to understand.”

“Aw c’mon, Kairi, you’re gonna make me blush,” Sora said sheepishly, running a hand through his spiky hair. “And, while we’re being honest… I guess it was pretty obvious that I was jealous of you when you showed up next to Riku on the day we met again. So, yanno, I’m sorry for how I acted. A lot was going on that day and there were definitely things I could have handled better.”

“It’s okay, I understand,” Kairi smiled. “I think all three of us were on edge that day.”

“Yeah, it _was_ pretty crazy.”

There was a lull in the conversation. Sora was the one to break it.

“You’ve known him longer than me, you know,” he said quietly. “It’s weird… in some ways, nothing has changed, and it’s like Riku and I are picking up where we left off. But there are always moments where it becomes obvious to me that I _wasn’t_ there, because everything is just so _different_ , and I’m trying my best to catch up and figure out what it is that I’m supposed to do but I’m not sure if I’m doing a good enough job at that.” He laughed, a small, almost self-deprecating thing. “Sorry, I’m not really sure why I’m telling you all of this.”

“Probably because I care about him just as much as you do.”

“Maybe you’re right.” He took a long sip of his drink before sitting back in his seat, looking at Kairi curiously. “I’ve been meaning to ask how the two of you met and became friends. I tried asking Riku about it, but he just said you wouldn’t quit bugging him and just sort of stuck around all these years.”

Kairi burst out laughing. “ _Of course_ he said that,” she said, rolling her eyes. “He can be such a dick sometimes that it makes me wonder why I _do_ stick around.” There was no anger or resentment in her tone, only laughter and a deeply held affection. “How it _actually_ happened is kind of a long story.”

“I’ve got time,” Sora replied, sitting up attentively.

Kairi smiled softly. “Well in that case… we met when we were fourteen. I had just presented as an alpha in the previous month and was still trying to adjust to it all. And because I was so small, well, certainly smaller than I am now, and didn’t really match up to a load of alpha stereotypes, I was bullied pretty badly in the beginning. And then, one day, Riku showed up…”

x~x~x~x~x

Kairi hit the concrete with a smack and a sharp pain exploded through her body. She gazed up at the alpha before her, tall and imposing, cutting an even more impressive figure now that she was sprawled out on the floor. The worst part of it all, she distantly thought, was that she hadn’t even done anything. Hadn’t even looked at this alpha funny or muttered some underhanded comment. She was small and she was weak and apparently these were unforgivable things for an alpha to be, and now she was a target.

Traverse Town was a big place. She had thought that if she just avoided the rougher districts, it would all be okay. But these days nowhere seemed to be safe. She hoped her mum wouldn’t be too mad that yet another set of clothes would need to be patched up.

“You gonna cry?” the alpha sneered, looming over Kairi threateningly.

Kairi’s bottom lip was already trembling as she said, “No,” as confidently as she could.

“You’re pathetic,” she spat, eyes narrowed in disgust.

And maybe she had a point there, but it hadn’t even been a month yet and Kairi was still trying to adjust to everything. Things like her sense of smell becoming sharper with each passing day, picking up on scents in a way that hadn’t been possible when she was younger. Scents added a whole new dimension to the world, made everything seem that much more intense. The putrid smell emanating from this alpha right now only served to make her seem more terrifying.

But suddenly there was a scent that was so, _so_ much worse. Kairi’s hand moved to cover her nose as the overwhelming stench of _burning_ wrapped threateningly around her. It was _all_ burning; burning forest fires upon rotting wood, burning charcoal polluting the air, burning until it was almost _suffocating_.

Kairi’s alpha aggressor also picked up on it—well, it _was_ pretty hard to miss—but before she could adequately get her bearings in the face of something so strong, she let out a strangled cry and fell heavily to the floor. Kairi’s eyes widened and she quickly scrambled away from the alpha who had landed mere centimetres away from herself.

“The only pathetic thing I see is a pathetic alpha picking on someone weaker than them,” a male voice rang out, tone dripping with clear disgust. Before Kairi could make any move to pick herself up and get back on her feet, someone was standing in front of her, back to her and arms outstretched.

This person… they were the source of the burning, the one sending the scent of tormented fire sweeping across the air. With wide eyes she noted the tall physique and toned muscles tensed beneath pale skin. Fear and intimidation were the foremost feelings that gripped her, until—

“How about you leave this poor girl alone and take me on instead, you fucking coward? I’ll kick you down as many times as you want.”

Kairi audibly gasped at that. This stranger, this boy with a scent so laden with anger and anguish that it made her feel sick… he was protecting her?

The downed alpha sent the boy a positively _murderous_ glare but she made no move to attack once she was back on her feet. “I won’t forget this,” she said instead, making sure to glare specifically at Kairi as well before storming off.

Once the coast was clear the intensity of the burning scent lessened into something more akin to smoke, and it was only then that Kairi picked up on something deeper lying beneath the doused flames. Kairi’s sense of smell was still developing and she was still not used to mapping emotions to scents, but her heart clenched in her chest as something instinctual recognised this new scent as an unbearable sadness.

“You okay?” the boy asked, turning around to hold his hand out to her.

Kairi just stared for a moment at curiously cyan eyes that were full of concern. The boy’s face was framed by shoulder-length silver hair, his pale cheeks reddened from the exertion it must have taken to floor her alpha assailant, while soft petal-like lips were pulled into a frown.

It was then, and only then, that Kairi finally became aware of something else lingering in the boy’s scent.

 _‘Omega,’_ something within her realised, but it seemed the boy also came to a realisation of his own in that same moment. Before she could reach out and take the proffered hand it was hastily snatched away, those eyes narrowing with anger and those soft lips pulling back into a snarl.

“You’re an alpha?” the boy asked, and all Kairi could do was nod dumbly in response. “Tch, what the fuck? What kind of shitty joke is this?”

He glared before abruptly turning his back on her. “Fight your own damn battles,” he said, that hard edge back in his tone before he sprinted away.

Kairi just stared after him, trying to take in the events of the past five minutes. Only when the omega boy was long gone did she seem to snap back into action, reaching a hand out uselessly in the direction he had run off in. “Wait…” she said to no one, “How am I meant to thank you?”

She couldn’t stop thinking about the curious omega boy after that. She didn’t know his name or where he lived or why he had run away from her so suddenly. But she did know that she wanted to thank him and that, in some ways, he was a bit like her. She felt a deep desire to alleviate whatever it was that caused his scent to be so tortured.

Like pouring water on scorched earth.

xxxxx

The next time Kairi bumped into the silver haired omega boy was two weeks later. Or, rather, the silver haired omega boy bumped into her. Literally.

She was on her way to pick up a few groceries that her mum needed for some new recipe she was attempting when a loud, indignant voice rose up above the general din of the busy city streets.

“Stop, thief! Someone stop that boy!”

At the sound of this voice Kairi looked up from the grocery list she had been perusing and not even a second later someone was slamming into her. Taken by complete surprise, the alpha toppled over and ending up sprawled across the pavement. Her fall was made all the harder with the added weight of the person who had landed on top of her as a result of their head-on collision.

Her eyes widened when she noticed the striking silver hair, and sure enough as the person pulled back she was able to take in the features that had been etched firmly on her mind for a fortnight. She frowned when she noticed what looked like fading scratch marks across the boy’s left cheek and noticed a rather fierce bruise marring his right forearm.

“Get back here dammit!” the voice from earlier yelled, utterly enraged.

“Fuck,” the omega muttered, paying absolutely no heed whatsoever to the alpha trapped underneath him. Kairi didn’t think he had even realised who she was, or even acknowledged her presence in general. He scrambled to his feet and in his haste ended up dropping something before he was sprinting away from her just like the first time they had met.

Kairi didn’t think she was fast enough to catch him and when she glanced up she had already lost him in the crowd as he deftly weaved his way through the busy street. Instead she looked to her side and picked up the item that he had dropped. A small rectangular foil packet lined with little pills.

Suppressants.

A beta wearing a white coat came to a stop in front of her, bending over and resting her hands on her knees to catch her breath. “Brilliant, just brilliant,” she was muttering to herself. It was only when she straightened up that the pharmacist noticed the packet in Kairi’s hands. “Hey, that’s—are you working with that boy?” she asked indignantly, snatching the packet none too kindly away from the young alpha.

“What? N-No,” Kairi replied, picking herself up and dusting off her clothes.

The beta looked like she didn’t believe her. “I’ve told him before that I can’t sell suppressants to anyone under the age of seventeen. There are rules in place for a reason! There are very serious risks with using suppressants at such a young age, you know. But just because I wouldn’t sell them to him, I didn’t think he’d come back and _steal_ them.” The poor woman looked utterly stressed out by this entire affair and Kairi supposed that she needed someone to vent to, even though a fourteen-year-old alpha with no real connection to the suppressant thief probably wasn’t the best choice of confidant.

“I refuse to be held liable for any damage that may occur,” she was saying, pacing a little now. “I have security footage, dammit, there was no way I could have realised. Maybe I should show the police… will they know who he is? They can inform his parents at the very least.” The beta was very much thinking aloud but then she suddenly turned to Kairi and looked at her sternly.

“Tell him he’s banned from our pharmacy.”

“But I don’t—”

“ _Banned_.”

And with that she sharply turned around and marched back into her shop, leaving Kairi alone with a million more questions about the mysterious omega boy.

xxxxx

For about a month or so it was like the omega boy was haunting her. She’d catch glimpses of him here and there, often sporting some new injury or scratch or bruise, and always utterly inaccessible. She saw him loitering around the Second District’s Gizmo Shop when she was with her mother to check out an offer one of the hotels was having on afternoon tea, and briefly caught sight of him passing through the labyrinthine central post office when she was mailing a present to her uncle. One time she swore that she saw him entering the Fifth District’s ‘Flower & Plant’ garden, but by the time she had made it inside and was surrounded by the plush greenery, the boy was nowhere to be seen.

It was like the universe was playing a cruel joke by letting her catch glimpses of him but never allowing her the time to introduce herself and, more pressingly, thank him for saving her all those weeks ago.

It was a card game that ended up breaking this cycle of brief sightings but never meetings. Kairi had never understood the popularity of Flick Rush nor did she particularly care to _try_ to understand. All she knew was that every two years Traverse Town would host a grand Flick Rush tournament in which players the world over would partake. The result was that the already crowded streets became congested to the point of madness for a hellish three weeks while the tournament was ongoing.

It was during one such tournament and Kairi being frustrated at every turn by a wall of bodies blocking her way home that she decided to brave the Back Streets. The city’s backstreets were pretty notorious for being a place where less than savoury individuals lurked and Kairi’s parents had always taught her to avoid them, but today called for desperate measures. Thankfully almost everyone was gathered and packed tight in a few of the main districts in order to watch and chat about the Flick Rush tournament, and the backstreets were eerily empty as a result.

Walking down these barren streets filled Kairi with equal parts calm and unease. Every now and then her eyes would linger on particularly ornate graffiti, and she could appreciate that the council had tried to make these streets prettier what with installing small waterfalls in front of some of the monolithic brick walls.

Just when she thought that she had these streets all to herself today she became aware of voices. They got louder when she kept pushing forward and determined that they were coming from a rather secluded section down a neglected side street. She paused briefly, knowing that she should just ignore this and get home quicker, but she gasped when the scent of burning wafted from down the street.

Kairi practically tripped over herself to follow that scent and those voices, coming to an abrupt stop just before the street opened up onto a small walled plaza. She slowly peeked around the wall to get a better look and her eyes widened at the scene she saw.

There was the silver haired omega, glaring defiantly at an alpha male that had him pressed up against the right wall. And standing just off to the side and goading the alpha male on was the alpha female that the omega boy had saved Kairi from.

“Fuck you!” the omega spat, eyes full of malice.

The alpha male just grinned cruelly and slammed the boy hard against the wall, causing him to groan in pain and Kairi to flinch. “It looks like you haven’t quite twigged that _you’re_ the one who gets fucked, pretty boy.” His hand roughly grabbed a fistful of the silver hair, tugging on the strands until the omega was practically on his tiptoes. He was like a broken marionette, and Kairi could see now the damage that the silverette had sustained. Despite it all, though, he never stopped glaring defiantly even in such a helpless position.

“Keep dreaming, bastard.”

“Heh, you talk a big game now but in the end you’re just a little omega bitch. Even prideful guys like you become needy sluts during heat. Fuck, there’s just something so _hot_ about someone like you begging for my cock.” He let out a low, dangerous chuckle as he dragged his thumb across the omega’s bottom lip. “I wonder what kind of expression you’d make impaled on my knot as I fill you up until you’re heavy with my cum…”

Suddenly he let out a yelp and jerked his hand back, thumb bleeding. The omega had a bloody smirk on his lips before spitting said blood back in the alpha’s face. “I have the displeasure of having you pressed right up against me,” he said, the hard edge to his tone undercut by a shaking quality that belied that he was at least partly fearful, “And I’m not impressed in the least. The only big thing about you is your ego.” He turned his head so he could regard the female alpha who had begun snickering at his previous comment. “What about you? You got something more impressive for me?” he challenged.

Kairi’s eyes widened. The omega was playing a dangerous game trying to pit these two alphas against each other in such a way, but given his current compromised position, she supposed that it was the only option he had available to him. It was either that, or…

“The fuck are you trying to say?” the male growled as the female swaggered over and put a hand on his shoulder, a wide smirk on her lips.

“He’s saying he wants a _real_ alpha, you idiot.”

“What did you just call me?” he asked, eyes narrowed dangerously.

They eyed each other up, scents spiking momentarily and causing the omega to flinch a little, but it seemed like it might actually work. All he needed was an opening and he could escape the hold and let these two alphas scrap it out.

For a few long, tense moments there was only silence. And then the two alphas seemed to come to some sort of agreement, nodding at each other before returning to their captive.

“Okay, we’ll both have a go,” he said.

“You can decide who was better afterwards,” she agreed.

Shit.

Kairi’s blood ran cold. This boy was going to get himself killed. His cocky façade crumbled and was replaced with wide eyes and a flare of fearful fire engulfing the air.

“Oh so _now_ you’ve got nothing to say?”

“Well since you’re through using that pretty mouth of yours, we’ll start by putting it to good use.”

The hand tangled in silver locks tightened and pushed down, forcing the injured omega onto his knees.

“Please, stop this!”

The male alpha paused. The female alpha’s gaze immediately locked onto Kairi, who now stood in the entrance of the plaza, stunned. That had… that had been her voice, hadn’t it? Oh god she’d gone and shouted out loud and now they were all looking at her and what on earth was she _thinking_? Is this what it meant to have alpha instincts to protect omegas? Is that why she was sacrificing herself now like an idiot?

“U-Um, I mean—” she began, and the omega boy took the chance created by her distraction to elbow the alpha who had forced him down as hard as he could, right in the abdomen. The alpha let out a hiss of pain and the omega managed to escape, running in Kairi’s direction. He was probably going to run right down the street and away from here while leaving Kairi at the mercy of these two alphas who now looked beyond pissed off.

So she was honestly shocked when the boy came to a stop by her side. He turned his head to the side slightly so she could hear him hiss out, “What the fuck are you doing?”

His harsh tone was in stark contrast to how hard his body was shaking.

“I just wanted to help,” Kairi said weakly.

The omega clicked his tongue, watching carefully as the two aggressors were advancing on them. “You know how to fight?”

Kairi shook her head. “No…”

“Well either figure it out quickly or get the fuck out of here while I hold them off. You’ll just get in my way.”

It wasn’t a choice, really. Kairi knew that there was no way that she could just leave him here alone. And so, swallowing nervously, she shakily held her fists up. Her impromptu battle partner raised an eyebrow at the action, but his lips quirked up at the edges nevertheless.

“Heh. All right then.” He put his own fists up as he said, “You take the bastard on the left and have yourself a nice little rematch with her.”

Kairi looked at him in wonder. So he did remember her, then?

“Leave the cunt on the right to me.” And with eyes and scent ablaze he leapt at his intended target.

Kairi quickly snapped her attention back to her own adversary. Okay. She could do this. She was an alpha, and fighting was kind of meant to be her thing now, right? _Any_ second now instinct was going to kick in and she’d miraculously know how to perform a suplex.

That didn’t happen. Instead she took a knee to the stomach and staggered back, winded.

“Still pathetic,” the female alpha sneered, and Kairi gritted her teeth.

So what if she wasn’t the biggest alpha, or the strongest, or the most intimidating? She didn’t _ask_ for this, didn’t ask for any of it. She didn’t really have a preference for which nature she’d eventually end up as, neither did her parents, but if she’d have known that presenting as an alpha would mean constantly being belittled and kicked to the kerb then she would have prayed to be anything but.

Being an alpha was shit. There were so many expectations upon her now, from her peers and from strangers, from society itself. All she wanted to do was live her life the way she always had, but even her good friend Selphie had started treating her a little differently since she became an alpha when really there was _no difference_ and she was _the same as she’d always been_ and—

And she was angry. For the first time since she had presented Kairi was really, truly angry. It felt like her blood was boiling just underneath the surface of her skin and the world was suddenly dyed red.

She felt a dull pain blooming across her knuckles from where her fist connected with her opponent’s cheek hard enough to send her reeling backwards. Kairi’s heartbeat was drumming loud and fast in her ears, breath coming out in quick pants but she didn’t shrink backwards when the other alpha female growled and leapt at her.

Kairi _wasn’t_ pathetic. Starting pointless fights, picking on weaker people, _that_ was pathetic. Kairi’s worth wasn’t determined by how hard she could throw a punch or how quickly she could knock someone out, but those were sadly the metrics by which she was now measured, and as she threw another scrappy punch she wondered if playing this part would get other alphas to finally leave her alone.

It was all a blur, really. An anger fuelled blur in which Kairi was free to suddenly let out all of her frustrations. An anger fuelled blur of screaming and scratching and kicking and bleeding and Kairi wasn’t really sure if she was winning or losing until her opponent landed heavily on her knees, fist banging angrily against the plaza’s stone slabs. Adrenaline kept any damage Kairi sustained at bay for the moment, only to be felt keenly the next morning. As she gazed at her fallen foe she felt a heady rush grip her body.

 _Power_. In that moment she felt powerful, and it was addictive. So this was victory? This was what it meant to win? What it meant to be strong?

She took a step forward, drunk on a potent blend of power and anger. She could crush the pathetic alpha before her. Make it so that she could never torment anyone ever again. She could break her, and it would be _fun_.

And it was then that Kairi caught herself, staggering back as if she had been punched once more.

No, that wasn’t right. That _couldn’t_ be right. How could she even think…?

She heard a body hit the ground, saw the omega smash his heel into the downed alpha male’s face until his nose made a foreboding _crack_ and there was blood on his shoe now, but he didn’t seem to care. “Who’s the bitch _now_?” he sneered, before turning on his heel and heading towards the plaza’s exit.

Kairi stumbled after him.

“Wait!” she called, noting the way the omega was limping, the distressed burning he was giving off making her stomach flip. “Please wait!”

“What is it?” the omega asked, refusing to stop.

“I wanted to thank you.”

“For what?”

“For saving me that time.”

For a brief moment, the omega hesitated. Then, “You don’t need to thank me; you did the same just now, so we’re even. You did well for your first fight, but I guess that’s the strength of an alpha for you.” Kairi didn’t know why he sounded so bitter when he said that.

There was silence save for the echo of their footsteps as they made their way through the backstreets, the omega limping and leading the way, Kairi following.

“I’m Kairi,” she said after a couple of minutes.

“I didn’t ask,” the omega replied shortly. It was another couple of minutes until they came to a small tunnelway that looped back to the First District. The omega stopped and let out a heavy sigh. “Riku.”

Kairi blinked at him, eyes wide. “Riku? That’s your name?” The boy nodded. She felt giddy. _Finally_ she had a name! _Finally_ she could stop referring to him as ‘the silver haired omega boy’. Riku… This tiny scrap of information he had thrown at her felt like a true accomplishment. It felt like an acknowledgement.

“Hey, Riku,” she didn’t want to stop saying it now that she knew it, “I wanted to ask if you wanted to be my friend?”

Riku’s eyebrows furrowed and he sort of… folded in on himself. “Good one,” he said dryly.

“Wait, I’m not joking,” she insisted.

“If it wasn’t already obvious, I don’t make friends with alphas.”

Riku offered her no chance to launch a counterargument as he ran into the tunnel. By the time Kairi thought to chase after him and she emerged into the First District, Riku had long been lost to the Flick Rush crowd.

But she had a name, which was definitely more than she was beginning to think she’d ever have.

“Riku…” she murmured.

No matter what, she wanted to be his friend.

xxxxx

“You’re fucking persistent, aren’t you?”

“I just really want to be your friend.”

“Are you a stalker or something?”

“What? No!” Kairi said indignantly.

Riku snorted. “Right. So it’s just coincidence that you show up everywhere I go, huh?”

“I mean, for the most part it kind of is…”

“‘For the most part’,” Riku repeated, and Kairi bit her lip at the slip up. Maybe she _had_ gone a bit overboard. Traverse Town was a sprawling mass of a city, so for the two of them to come across each other with such regularity had to seem peculiar. It had been about ten days since Kairi had learnt Riku’s name and about ten days of him telling her none too kindly to fuck off.

“Quit following me.”

“I’m not following you; I just so happen to also be going this way.”

“Is that right?”

“That’s right,” Kairi replied.

“Cut the crap!” Riku growled out, suddenly whirling around and grabbing her collar. With a strength that Riku had clearly poured every scrap of his being into attaining, he shoved her up against the wall. “You just so happen to also be heading down some abandoned dead-end street?”

Kairi bowed her head. She hadn’t been paying attention to wherever it was that Riku had been going, and it showed. “S-Sorry,” she mumbled, flinching when Riku shook her hard.

“What the hell do you want from me? Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kick the crap out of you right now!”

That was true, Kairi realised: Riku hadn’t tried to hurt her at all, and she had a feeling that he wasn’t about to do so now. She must have done _something_ right, must have been able to show him that she was different in some way. “I just want to be your friend,” she said honestly.

“ _Why?_ ”

It was a fair enough question. Sometimes Kairi wondered why she felt so desperate to befriend Riku. He was nothing but trouble: he was violent, spewed swears like they were going out of style, and she knew that he had stolen at least once and maybe a lot more times. Getting tangled up with such a person wasn’t sensible or wise or something she should even entertain.

 _But_.

For all the bluster and bravado, Riku just seemed so _sad_. Kairi got the impression that he was crying out for a friend, even if he wasn’t fully aware that he was doing it. And god knew how much she had been looking for someone herself, someone who was just as sick and tired of the bullshit that came with presenting as she was.

She really didn’t know much about Riku, had no idea what was causing a spectre of darkness to hang over him, but more than anything she wanted to wash all of the bad things away. Even if she didn’t understand _how_ she knew, she _did_ know that Riku didn’t deserve this. He deserved so much better. And so did she.

Maybe there was a reason that he was there to save her that day, and that she was there to save him in return. Calling it ‘destiny’ would be too dramatic, but something just seemed to make sense about the two of them being friends.

“Because I want to,” she replied earnestly. “I’ve wanted to since the day we met. Please, Riku, just give me a chance. I think we’ve got more in common than you think.”

Kairi wasn’t sure what Riku saw on her face in that moment. But whatever expression she wore caused his eyes to widen and his grip on her collar to slacken. He stepped back, subdued by her sincerity.

“You’re weird,” was all he could come up with in response.

Kairi couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “I guess.”

“I don’t get you.”

“But you could get to know me,” she smiled. “Be my friend, Riku? Please?”

“What would we even do?” he asked, crossing his arms.

“Huh?”

Riku looked at her as if she was simple. “Friends do stuff together, right? What did you have in mind?”

“O-Oh.” Wait, so was that a yes to Riku agreeing to be her friend? Or was he going to decide based on her answer? She actually hadn’t thought this far ahead, focused as she was on just getting over the first hurdle. She grasped for something now, running through every activity she could think of. A poster flashed before her mind, one that she had caught sight of a few days ago, and she took a deep breath and threw something out there. “I heard that an outdoor cinema has been set up in the Eighth District. We could go and watch something there? I-If you want.”

“Don’t they just show shitty B-movies because they couldn’t get the licenses for anything decent?”

Kairi deflated. “Um, well, we could do something else?”

“Forget it.”

Kairi bit her lip. She’d blown it. She’d been given a chance and she’d gone and ruined it already.

“The Eighth District, huh? It’s pretty far to walk there from here. You wanna catch the tram there or take the metro?”

Kairi’s eyes widened and she looked up. “D-Does that mean…?”

Riku shoved his hands in his pockets, avoiding her gaze. “I guess it’s not like I had anything better to do.”

Kairi smiled so widely that her cheeks started to ache. “Whatever you prefer!” she beamed, happily following after him as Riku made to exit the side street he had initially led them down.

“Stop looking at me like that,” he said after a moment. “You don’t need to be so happy.”

“I can’t help it,” Kairi replied honestly. “And…” She considered how to effectively word this. “Well, you don’t _really_ mind it, right?” Yes, Kairi was new to this whole alpha thing, and she was still negotiating the world of scents, but she could swear that lingering in Riku’s scent right now was something she perceived as happiness. The thought that she had caused it made her heart swell.

“What makes you say that?”

“Your scent kind of makes you an open book at times,” she admitted.

“Shit,” Riku mumbled, running a hand through his hair. And were his cheeks tinting pink? That was interesting. “Sorry. I’m trying to get it under control.”

Kairi didn’t think it was wise to tell Riku that she actually thought it was kind of cute how honest his scent was, that is, when it wasn’t breaking her heart or scaring the crap out of her. “It’s not like you can help it,” she said instead, “We’re both trying to adjust to all these new changes.” Plus all the students at her school who were presenting as omegas also had scents that went haywire. It was just one of those things that happened until they matured and got a better handle on controlling it.

“Yeah…”

Later that night, the conclusion that both Kairi and Riku drew from the Eighth District’s film offering was this: it was utterly dreadful in every way.

They made plans to go there again the next day to see if anything worse existed.

x~x~x~x~x

“Somehow, we ended up becoming regulars at that outdoor cinema,” Kairi recalled fondly. “And then we gradually started hanging out more and doing other stuff together and before I realised it, he was my best friend. He still did stupid shit for a long time, kept being reckless for years. It’s a wonder he didn’t end up hospitalised with how many fights he’d get into. He nearly did, a couple of times. But then one day, when we were… sixteen or seventeen, something like that, he just changed. He mellowed out, stopped getting into fights, stopped swearing… he never told me what triggered the change, but I don’t think it was anything good.”

That first week after Riku’s dramatic demeanour change had been especially bad. He looked so pale and haunted, but he refused to discuss details with her. The only explanation she got was, “Family stuff,” and that could have meant anything.

“I don’t think his sadness ever truly went away. He’s just gotten very good at hiding it. Still,” and she offered Sora a grateful smile, “He seems a lot happier lately, ever since you’ve been around. He smiles a lot more now.” Real, genuine smiles, not his little smirks or sarcastic smiles that so often played on his lips. And maybe, deep down, there was a part of her that was upset, maybe even jealous, that she couldn’t have done more, that she wasn’t the one to make Riku smile like that.

Sora had listened attentively to her tale of how her and Riku met, his expression cycling through many emotions throughout. Eventually, he exhaled. “I really _did_ miss a lot,” he said quietly, idly poking at the straw of his now empty slushie. “You know, I’m surprised that the two of you didn’t—”

“Riku tried,” Kairi answered honestly, pre-empting his question. Sora looked at her with wide eyes and _did_ seem surprised by this revelation, regardless of his previous comment. She smiled humourlessly; he had probably been expecting it to be the other way around. “Riku loves me, but he doesn’t love me like that. Even when he asked me I knew that he was doing it for the wrong reasons. We get on well, he knows me, and he cares about me; if we were courting it would cut down on the alphas who pursued him and he hoped it would stop his family trying to rope him into some sort of marriage of convenience. And I’m safe; he wouldn’t need to worry about getting his heart broken, because I never really held it to begin with.”

She had told him as much, and explained that she deserved someone who would truly see her as a lover. Riku had offhandedly replied that he could always learn to view her in that way.

“Maybe he really would have let me be his alpha, but… It didn’t seem right. I didn’t want it to happen like that. Plus I’d miss my best friend.”

 _‘And besides,’_ she thought privately, _‘Even if we had become a couple, it would have fallen apart the instant you came along. I can’t compete with fate.’_

She looked at Sora seriously. “Take care of him.”

Her phone started ringing then, and Kairi was surprised when she noted the time displayed on the top corner of her mobile before she answered Olette’s call. She hadn’t meant for her story to drag on for so long. Olette cheerily informed her that the omegas’ day out had been a great success but Naminé had needed to head home a little early so did her and Sora want to meet up with herself and Riku at the central square in about twenty minutes?

The two alphas had agreed and began to slowly make their way to the arranged meeting spot. Sora, for all his chattiness earlier, was uncharacteristically quiet now, his face a picture of deep contemplation. She supposed that he had a lot of new information to sort through, even if the Riku from back then was a very different beast to what he was now.

The sombre atmosphere surrounding them immediately dissipated the second they clapped eyes on their omegas. Olette was laden with shopping bags and even Riku had a fair amount, which Kairi really hadn’t been expecting. What was even more surprising was the long silver braid sweeping over his right shoulder. The two omegas wore polar opposite expressions: Olette one of excited elation, and Riku one of exhausted resignation.

“Naminé convinced Riku to let us braid his hair!” was the first thing Olette had said when they were close enough to be heard, and Sora immediately descended into Utterly Doting Boyfriend Mode as he ran up to Riku to give him a hug and run his fingers along the braid.

“You look so pretty, Riku!” he hummed happily, and Kairi watched in amusement as Riku’s face became several shades redder.

“That’s it, I’m taking it out,” Riku said resolutely, dropping his bags in order to rip out the hair tie, much to the disappointed protests of both Olette and Sora.

“Riku, you can’t!” Olette insisted.

“What, _why_?” Sora whined.

“Stop being a baby and admit that his compliment made you happy,” Kairi laughed, pushing Riku’s hands away and lightly tugging on his braid. “It looks good.”

“Are you mocking me?”

“Shut up and accept that you’re pretty.” It was then that Kairi noticed… “Oh my _god_ Riri, is that—”

“Riku, your _nails_!” Sora said excitedly, lacing their fingers together. Ah, so he had noticed too. Poor Riku looked like he was about to die on the spot as Sora turned their palms around so that he could get a good look at the alternating blue and yellow nail varnish prettily painted onto Riku’s nails.

“Wow,” Kairi commented, sliding in next to Olette and wrapping her arm around her waist. “I don’t know how you did it, but I’m definitely impressed.” She placed a sweet kiss on Olette’s cheek and the omega giggled in response.

“Oh it wasn’t too hard. Riku was very agreeable to most of what Naminé and I suggested. In fact, the manicures were his idea.”

Kairi’s eyes widened at that. There was no way that was the truth… right? She thought back to his SOS text. It seemed that things really _had_ gotten out of hand. She couldn’t help but find it amusing that Riku clearly had difficulty saying ‘no’ to other omegas when he was such a mouthy bastard when it came to alphas. Or, well, _most_ alphas. The brunette alpha that was currently wrapping his arms around Riku, while Riku buried his bright red face in said alpha’s hair, was clearly the exception to the rule.

They were utterly besotted with each other, that much was clear. And maybe things really would be this easy. But…

“Is everything okay?” Olette asked, squeezing Kairi’s hand.

“Yes,” she said, before pausing and shaking her head. She didn’t want to lie, especially not to Olette. “Looking at the two of them, I just can’t help feeling that this is all too _simple_. I really hope everything stays this way; I’d love more than anything for that to be the case. But I can’t shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen.”

Olette leant against her shoulder, watching the two young men with a fond look on her face. “I’m sure they’ll be okay,” she assured her, “They’re perfect for each other. And both of them are strong. They can handle anything that comes their way.”

 _‘I hope you’re right,’_ Kairi thought, but outwardly she just smiled and nodded.

“All right then!” she said, clapping her hands, “How about we have a double date?”

And as Riku pulled himself away from Sora in order to chase her around the square for daring to bring that up again, Kairi allowed herself to laugh, and prayed that all of their days could remain this carefree forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've based Riku's love of ballet on the KH canon, believe it or not. [His initial concept art had him fighting using a distinctive ballet style](https://kingdomheartsnyctophiliac.tumblr.com/post/162253251490/concept-riku-fought-like-a-ballerina-i-would), then of course there's Riku's Symphony of Sorcery level in DDD set to music from _The Nutcracker_. I loved that level so much! And have you guys seen the trailer for the ReMIND DLC that has Riku elegantly destroying enemies like the badass ballet boi he truly is?!
> 
> Next chapter should have some smutty goodness. Also any comments you have on chapter length would be most appreciated. I feel bad for releasing such long chapters but if it doesn't bother my readers then I suppose it's okay. I could always try splitting them up into smaller chunks if that's more preferred? Anyway I shall stop rambling and thank you for reading instead: thank you!
> 
> May your lives be blessed with bountiful SoRiku goodness~


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